A Response to the Guardian Editorial on Abortion Judicial Review

A couple of days after Judge Nancy Key denied me standing to bring a Judicial Review of PEI’s Abortion policy before the PEI Supreme Court, the Guardian Newspaper published an editorial titled, “Time to Move On: Abortion Debate Long Over.”   I wasn’t planning to write another Guest Opinion on abortion anytime soon; however, the Guardian’s editorial was so factually inaccurate, biased and unfair it demands a response. 

I sent the following Guest Opinion article to the Guardian today, July 25, (which I’d be very surprised to see them publish) and I also uploaded it to my website.  My hope is that other Islanders will now speak out publicly in support of the unborn and not give in to the intimidation and bullying tactics of abortion supporters – such as the Guardian editorial staff – who would obviously prefer to never again be reminded that unnecessarily destroying the lives of innocent unborn children is wrong.

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After all my legal research and public writing on abortion, I wonder how many Islanders are aware that the provincial government is still breaking the law paying for abortions which are not medically required? Section 4(h) of the Health Services Payment Act remains in force and reads: “It is the function of the Minister and the Minister has power….to withhold payment for basic health services for any entitled person who does not, in the opinion of the Minister, medically require the services.” When the Liberal Cabinet recently removed the regulatory requirement that abortions be “medically required” they (ironically) triggered the legal duty of the Minister to not pay for them!  But of course they will. The Liberal government has shown nothing but contempt for PEI’s abortion law since coming into power, and they will likely continue to do so, especially now that the PEI Supreme Court has allowed their breach of the law to go unchallenged. The question now is whether the Official Opposition has the courage to challenge the government for its blatant disregard of the law.

If surgical abortions aren’t medically necessary – which Canadian Physicians for Life and countless other international gynecologists and obstetricians have declared – then we simply shouldn’t be paying for them, as our health law says!

And why has the Guardian shown no concern that the Liberal government is breaking the law?  If the law said that the government “must” pay for all abortions, even when not medically necessary – and the government refused to do so – well, I’m sure the Guardian editorial staff would have lots to say about that!

Rather than report the facts as I presented them at the Supreme Court hearing on July 18, the Guardian editorial staff chose to insult me and tried to intimidate all pro-life Islanders into silence by declaring that the abortion debate is “long since over” and its time to move on. The abortion “debate” has indeed been over for a very long time, but only because those advocating for abortion-on-demand refuse to acknowledge key facts or address certain arguments; they just keep repeating falsehoods such as: “The Morgantaler case ruled that women have a constitutional right to abortion;” or: “The Charter compels the province to offer and pay for abortions,” while being careful to never mention or discuss the unborn.

Sure, everyone is entitled to their opinion; but when you control the most influential newspaper in PEI yet feel the need to state that weeks of voluntary legal research by an Islander on an ethical and social issue of concern to thousands of other Islanders was a “waste of 90 minutes” of the judge’s and Court’s time – without challenging a single argument or fact – well, that’s just mean-spirited and very unprofessional. Islanders want the Guardian to be a “news” paper; not a tabloid gossip rag.

If you really want to know what I presented to the court, please read it yourself before accepting the Guardian’s complete dismissal of my attempt to advocate on behalf of the unborn and hold the PEI government accountable to the law: https://kevinjarsenault.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/supreme-court-presentation-july-18.pdf