The first post (long overdue)

This is an editorial I've had on my computer for a long time that I read when I need to remind myself how sneaky politicians can be. I suppose I don't need much reminding these days, but it's still well worth a read. Although Mark Leger (founder and former editor of [here]) is no longer with the magazine and it has mostly gone down the shitter, I'm still captivated by his words. 

Note: although it was retrieved originally at the address listed below, it is no longer available there.

By Mark Leger

Conservatives in Progressive Clothing

Bernard Lord and others try to mask their conservative views in progressive speech.

That the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is being used to protect, of all things, people's rights and freedoms is a continuing source of frustration for Canadian social conservatives. In public they pay lip service to the charter of course because most Canadians are proud of this progressive piece of legislation to protect individual rights. 

This means that conservatives have to invent progressive justifications for their regressive policies and stances on issues.

Conservative leader [now P.M.] Stephen Harper did this recently on the issue of gay marriage, when he said that reserving marriage for heterosexual couples and civil unions for gays was not a violation of individual rights, but rather respect for the diversity of relationships in Canada.

PC premier Bernard Lord [no longer premier] attempted a similar sleight-of-hand recently when he said that paying for abortions in private clinics violated the spirit of the public health care system. In point of fact, however, a private clinic was forced to set up here because the provincial government had restricted access to abortions in public hospitals, even though the procedure is legal in Canada.

In 1988, the Supreme Court struck down the federal law against abortion because it violated section seven of the Charter of Rights. "Forcing a woman, by threat of criminal sanction to carry a foetus to term...is a profound interference with a woman's body and thus a violation of her security of the person," wrote Chief Justice Brian Dickson at the time.

Small-c conservatives including former Liberal premier Frank McKenna and PC premier Bernard Lord have fought that decision - in spirit and in law - ever since. McKenna lost a battle to keep Henry Morgentaer from setting up a private clinic in the province, and he and Lord have refused to fund abortions there since the clinic opened in Fredericton in 1994. 

Morgentaler is currently suing the provincial government for not paying for abortions in the clinic. Federal Health Minister Ujjal Dosanj has urged the province to pay for them, saying they could be violating the Canada Health Act, which states that women must have access to safe and legal abortions.

The premier says the province will not pay for abortions in private clinics because they are available in public hospitals. Pro-choice advocates say that abortions are hard to get there, though, because two physicians must deem them medically necessary. Moreover, a lot of women find the hospitas an inhospitable and difficult place to get an abortion, so much so that hundreds of them pay out of pocket every year for aboritons at the Morgentaler clinic, where the cost for an abortion is anywhere from $500-750.

What the Lord government is doing (and what McKenna did before them) is undermining the Supreme Court ruling by making it difficult for women to exercise their right to get an abortion.

Lord won't pay for private clinic abortions based on what he says is a progressive stance. "I find it ironic to have the federal health minister telling us we have to fund a private abortion clinic while at the same time going across the country against other types of private health clinics," he said recently.

The strategy is transparent: adopt a progressive post (defending public health care) to mask a regressive policy (restricting a woman's access to a service guaranteed by the Charter of Rights). 

Unfortunately, Lord's tactic seems to be working with New Brunswickers. In an online poll by canadaeast.com, a majority opposed paying for abortions in private clinics.

But I wonder if the result would be different if the question was put in its proper context.

For the most part, there is pressure to establish private clinics for a variety of health services because the system is under-funded and often can't afford the best service, in terms of care and reduced waiting times.

The goal of the government is to improve services, and at the same time preserve a publicly funded system. 

The Morgentaler clinic exists not because the hospitals are under-funded, but because of lingering opposition, or distaste for abortion itself. The Morgentaler clinic is a safe space for a woman to obtain the procedure without delay, free of the need to justify her decision to a pair of doctors. 

Making the decision to get an abortion is a difficult one (only the most deluded and spiteful pro-lifers [I prefer anti-choicers] think women take it lightly, using the procedure as a form of birth control).

A private clinic like Morgentaler's is a safe place - both medically and emotionally - for women who decide to have an abortion. The public should pay so those women can have that peace of mind that comes from knowing they're respected, not judged, for a choice that is their Charter-given right.

Retrieved Feb. 25, 2006 from http://www.herenb.com/saintjohn/issues/0605/conservatives.html