It’s time for Manitoba legislators to treat our money with respect
Did you know that Manitoba taxpayers currently shell out $4 million annually for the elective abortion procedure alone? That price tag excludes the cost of abortion complications such as perforations, sepsis, uterine hemorrhage, infertility, breast cancer, post- traumatic stress disorder and suicide. All these indirect costs could easily escalate the total cost of abortion in our health care system to tens of millions of dollars annually!
For $4 million per year, Manitoba can hire 20 family doctors or 60 nurses in communities facing a dire shortage. Or purchase 3 life -saving MRI machines every year. Or provide crucial therapy to 50 additional autistic children each year. All these uses of taxpayer dollars would represent genuine health care… rather than killing babies.
It’s ludicrous to ask us to open up our wallets for these killings when the province is drowning in debt, and genuine areas of health care are neglected, such as treating autistic kids, fixing doctor and nurse shortages, improving elder care and buying MRI machines.
The Canada Health Act is federal law which requires provinces to fund “medically necessary” services, but it does not define abortion as being medically necessary.
When Manitoba legislators deem an elective procedure as “not medically necessary” it does not get insured by the provincial health insurance plan. As a result, it will not receive public funding.
For example, Manitoba’s government delisted optometry exams from provincial health insurance coverage in 1996. An example from another province was the delisting of physiotherapy and chiropractic services by the Ontario government in 2004.
Therefore, it is clear that Manitoba MLAs can easily delist abortion from the health insurance plan. What they lack is the political will and moral fortitude to do the right thing.
In almost all abortion cases, the life of the mother is not in danger. The simple truth is that more than 96% of the time, abortions today are performed for convenience, as a back-up birth control method. That’s clearly not a medical necessity and should not be funded as such.
On October 3, 2013, taxpayers will be gathering at the provincial legislature to demand that their elected representatives delist abortion from the services covered by Manitoba Health.
This is a growing movement. The Defund Abortion campaign is happening nationally, with participation by 6 other provinces including Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Join this taxpayer liberation movement today!
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