By Deborah Gyapong

AS POLITICIANS debate health care reform in the United States, a key issue is the use public funds for abortion.

In early November, pro-life Democrat congressman Bart Stupak's anti-abortion funding amendment enabled the U.S. House of Representatives to narrowly pass embattled health care legislation.

In Canada, one might come to believe the debate is settled and most Canadians are content with funding of abortion on demand. But a new Environics survey shows that 68 percent of Canadians disagree with the present state of affairs. They would either have abortion funded privately (18 percent) or only in cases of rape or incest (49 percent.) Only 26 percent think public funds should pay for all abortions.

The survey, entitled Canada's Attitudes Towards Abortion, was commissioned by LifeCanada.org -- a national umbrella organization for pro-life educational groups across Canada. The study is available through the website.

LifeCanada president Dr. Delores Doherty, a pediatrician based in St. John's, Newfoundland, said the results on abortion funding were consistent with previous studies commissioned yearly by the organization.

Doherty believes political correctness has contributed to the great disconnect between public policy and what Canadians say they want.

"It's an issue people don't want to touch, even though the [Supreme Court] said it was up to the legislatures to do something with it," she said. "You're looking at an issue that's very big -- that's been made very small, into a women's rights issue."

Yet abortion is a multi-layered, societal issue that has created problems that affect everyone, she said. It's contributing to a demographic winter caused by falling fertility rates in Western nations; it's going to affect the economy as populations age, with fewer children to become future taxpayers; it's even created longer waiting lists for bone marrow transplants due to the scarcity of siblings for good matches, she said.

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"We've ended up creating a horrible situation that we're stuck in now, because we won't even look at it," she said.

Doherty cited studies which have shown that more than 60 percent of women say they were pressured into having an abortion. "I don't think a woman who is getting coerced has a choice."

Men are increasingly deserting women, and killing women if they're pregnant, she said. The pressure can be overt or covert -- and can come from partners, parents and even co-workers.

One doctor told another doctor she must have an abortion because her pregnancy would ruin the residency rotation, she said.

The recent LifeCanada study shows that about 30 percent of Canadians believe unborn children should be protected from conception on. About 17 percent believe babies should receive protection after three months in the womb; eight percent want protection to kick in after six months.

Doherty contended that studies show the harm abortion causes women, including greater risks of depression and suicide attempts; of infertility; of negative effects on future pregnancies; of breast cancer and other problems. But in Canada, even attempts to get a bill requiring informed consent meets with crushing opposition from well-organized women's groups she said.

"So many risks [have been] shown for abortion now, that aren't even being told to the women -- and aren't even known to the general public," she said. Yet informed consent is required for appendectomies or chemotherapy for cancer, she added.

"Silence is the word," she said.

Funding of abortion is a provincial matter, she said. But since there is no federal law limiting abortion, she asked, "why shouldn't they fund it?"

She noted another recent study that showed most Canadians are happy with the status quo on abortion laws in Canada. But a subsequent study showed Canadians did not know what the status quo is -- that there is no legal protection for the unborn child up until he or she is born.

Courtesy of Canadian Catholic News. Please do not reprint without permission.

December 9/2009