Liberals vow to protect abortion rights

‘Freedom of a woman to choose belongs to her and her alone,’ Trudeau says as Tories stay mum

Access to safe and legal abortions will be protected in Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday.

But the Liberal government is not yet clear on exactly what that will mean in action.

A leaked draft ruling from the United States Supreme Court that would strike down the national right to legal abortions in that country put abortion back on the front burner in Canada this week.

Conservative MPS, warned off by their party leadership from commenting on the U.S. situation, are going out of their way to avoid the discussion.

But Liberal MPS, who have long used abortion as a wedge issue against the Tories, were lining up to talk to reporters about it both before and after their weekly caucus meeting in Ottawa Wednesday.

On his way into that meeting, Trudeau said his government will never stop defending and protecting the right to a safe and legal abortion in Canada.

“The freedom of a woman to choose belongs to her and her alone,” Trudeau said.

And, he said, he has already directed Health Minister Jean-yves Duclos and Status of Women Minister Marci Ien “to look at the legal framework” around abortion services to ensure “that not just under this government, but under any future government, the rights of women are properly protected.”

The ministers were told to pursue that objective in their mandate letters in December and Duclos said Tuesday the results of that work are imminent.

During the election, the Liberals promised to introduce regulations under the Canada Health Act to ensure abortion services were clearly medically necessary and to be publicly funded.

That promise grew from a disagreement between Ottawa and New Brunswick about whether the province had to fund abortions at a private clinic. Premier Blaine Higgs argued the province was already funding abortions at three hospitals and did not have to do so at Clinic 554 in Fredericton.

Health Canada clawed back transfer payments to New Brunswick equal to the amount it says was charged to patients by the clinic for abortions. A spokesperson says in March $65,000 was clawed back for the 2020-21 period in New Brunswick. Ontario had $6,560 clawed back for a similar issue.

Questions have arisen about whether the Canada Health Act is clear enough about what provinces are required to do in providing abortion services.

House Leader Mark Holland said “it’s too early to hypothesize” what the government may do to protect access to abortions in Canada, including going further than regulations and using legislation to do it.

Conservative MPS are going out of their way to avoid the discussion