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Alberta
Pro-Life welcomes Premier Kleins announcement that Health
Minister Gary Mar will look at ways to cut health care
costs to ensure the health system is sustainable.
We
hope that Mr. Mar and the caucus will look seriously at
de-insuring abortions,said Alberta Pro-Life president
Joanne Byfield. Alberta taxpayers pay for over 10,000
abortions every year. Thats millions of dollars that could
go to medical procedures and drugs that cure illnesses
or disease.
Byfield
said that pregnancy is not a disease and most abortions
are performed because women ask for them, not because
they are medically indicated. Abortion proponents constantly
tell us that abortion is a womans choice. It cant be both
a personal choice and a medical necessity,said Byfield.
She also said that physical and mental health risks associated
with abortion increase health care costs.
Alberta Health responded this week to a Freedom of Information
request by Alberta Pro-Life asking for the number of repeat
abortions.
Of
the 10,589 abortions performed in 2001, 3,904 of them,
37%, were performed on women who had already had one or
more abortions,said Byfield. 720 women had their third
abortion in 2001, 177 had their fourth. Seventy women
were listed in the category of four or more previous abortions.
Byfield questioned why taxpayers are paying for women
to have three, four and five abortions. How can this be
medically necessary?she asked. Its particularly galling
when we know that private, for-profit clinics perform
almost half of the abortions in the province. They are
in the business. Are they going to tell women that an
abortion is not medically necessary?
Before we start charging user fees for legitimate health
services or depriving people of costly drugs as Mr. Mar
has suggested, we should stop paying for abortions,she
said. I hope the public consultation process that Premier
Klein has promised will include asking Albertans if they
want to continue to pay millions each year for abortions.
She pointed out that an October 2003 Leger poll found
that 76% of Albertans polled said they did not support
public funding for abortions except in medical emergencies
when the mothers life was threatened, or in cases of rape
and incest.
The
provincial government should respect the wishes of three-quarters
of Albertans and let those who choose abortion pay for
it themselves.
For more information, call Joanne Byfield at 780-445-0344
(cell)
or
Alberta Pro-Life at 780-421-7747.
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