The good news is very good
It goes underreported in the pro-life community how pro-abortion efforts have been consistently frustrated in New Brunswick. We don’t see this success often, so it’s worth taking a moment to be grateful that the government in New Brunswick, under the leadership of Premier Blaine Higgs, has consistently refused to fund abortions at private clinics in that province – the only province to do so. This is despite activist pressure (one group tweets at him daily), financial pressure (the federal government reduced their health transfer by $140,000), and legal pressure (the Canadian Civil Liberties Association launched a lawsuit against the government). This pressure has only increased in recent months as pro-abortion activists have used the US Supreme Court decision in Dobbs to continue the conversation. The government, however, is holding firm.
Premier Higgs was once again asked about abortion after a recent announcement around expanding what medical procedures private clinics could do. Global News reported that Premier Higgs isn’t bending to the activist pressure: “While the province is examining expanding what sorts of procedures can be done at clinics, Higgs said surgical abortions will not be one them [sic]. He says the focus will be on procedures with limited access and has been told by the health authorities that abortion access in the province is adequate.”
While this isn’t a pro-life defense of his decision, the pro-life movement can still cheer the result. Clinic 554 or any other private clinic in the province won’t get funding to end the lives of pre-born children.
We Need a Law has been following this situation closely and doing what we can to help strengthen the government’s position and introduce the pro-life message into the conversation. This includes publishing a position paper on the topic and intervening in the ongoing legal challenge.
The bad news is, the news is bad
Global News doesn’t just report the news, but takes the opportunity to shoehorn pro-abortion propaganda into their article without even a nod to the counter arguments from those who support the government’s decision.
The fact that abortion is even coming up demonstrates this media’s bias. This issue should be about healthcare. Something that became blatantly clear over the last two years is that Canada’s healthcare system is limited. Governments across the country are attempting to address the issues to ensure that people don’t lose their lives due to lack of access to healthcare. Part of Premier Higgs’ solution is to better utilize private healthcare clinics. What does any of this have to do with abortion? Yet this Global News article chose to make it about abortion.
On top of that, there is no evidence put forward that abortion is an actual issue for the residents of New Brunswick apart – all this pressure comes solely from those who would benefit financially or politically from pushing a pro-abortion agenda. The article quotes the Green Party health critic and the Liberal leader, and it refers to Dr. Adrian Edgar, who owns the private clinic persistently pushing for government funding for abortion. The residents of New Brunswick are absent in this article. But they were clearly present when they re-elected Premier Higgs with this topic as an election issue.
It isn’t New Brunswickers who want more abortions funded. It certainly isn’t pre-born children. It’s the media, activists, and politicians who cannot be described anymore as pro-choice, but only as pro-abortion. The fact that journalists like those at Global News keep hijacking healthcare conversations in this way reveals their pro-abortion bias.