(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Canadians are divided on the role their public-run health care services should play in pregnancy termination, according to a poll by Angus Reid Public Opinion. 43 per cent of respondents believe the system should fund abortions whenever they are requested, while 41 per cent think it should only fund abortions in the event of medical emergencies.
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Canadians are divided on the role their public-run health care services should play in pregnancy termination, according to a poll by Angus Reid Public Opinion. 43 per cent of respondents believe the system should fund abortions whenever they are requested, while 41 per cent think it should only fund abortions in the event of medical emergencies.
Seven per cent of respondents believe the health care system should not fund abortions at all.
In Canada, the universality criterion establishes that all residents of a province or territory must be entitled to the insured, public-run health services provided by their provincial or territorial health care insurance plan on uniform terms and conditions.
In 1967, Canadian justice minister Pierre Trudeau presented a bill to partially liberalize abortion. On the same bill, Trudeau urged for the legalization of homosexuality and contraception, saying, "The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation." The bill was signed into law in 1969, when Trudeau was prime minister.
In January 1988, Canada’s Supreme Court ruled—on an appeal filed by pro-abortion advocate Henry Morgentaler—that Canada’s abortion law was unconstitutional. Abortion is now legal in Canada with no limitation on when to perform it.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear an appeal brought by David Little, who refused to pay taxes on the basis that the money could be used to fund abortion and argued that he was exercising his freedom of "conscience and religion" under the terms of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In August 2009, the Court of Appeal of New Brunswick rejected Little’s argument, stating that the "non-payment of taxes does not qualify as a religious practice nor has it become the tenet of any religious faith" and adding, "The refusals may be the product of an informed conscience, but the Charter was not intended to insulate such acts from the rule of law."
Polling Data
In Canada, abortions are provided on request to Canadian citizens and permanent residents, and are funded by the health care system. Which of these statements comes closer to your own point of view?
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Jan. 2010
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Jul. 2009
|
|
|
The health care system should fund abortions whenever they are requested
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43%
|
43%
|
|
The health care system should only fund abortions in the event of medical emergencies
|
41%
|
44%
|
|
The health care system should not fund abortions at all
|
7%
|
4%
|
|
Not sure
|
9%
|
8%
|
Source: Angus Reid Public Opinion
Methodology: Online interviews with 1,002 Canadian adults, conducted on Jan. 7 and Jan. 8, 2010. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.
