(LifeSiteNews) — Canada’s top pro-life group, Campaign Life Coalition (CLC), has urged Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to introduce legislation to ban “mail-order telemedicine abortions” after a pro-abortion former mayor suggested there needs to be “caution” concerning the at-home procedures.
“Premier Smith should quickly introduce legislation to ban mail-order and telemedicine abortions. In fact, given the popularity of her recent parental rights measures, it would be wise of her to fashion the legislation as a comprehensive package that also requires parental consent for minor abortions,” CLC’s Director of Political Operations Jack Fonseca told LifeSiteNews.
“The UCP’s base largely views abortion as distasteful, if not immoral, and Premier Smith should seize this opportunity to give them what they want.”
Recently, Never Again Alberta, a pro-abortion activist group that is opposed to the online prescription and distribution of abortion pills, posted a list of candidates vying to lead Alberta’s New Democratic Party (NDP) party amid its leadership race. The group’s list focused on the candidates’ views on so-called telemedicine abortions.
The main candidate considered to be the front-runner in the NDP leadership race, former mayor of Calgary Naheed Nenshi, told Never Again Alberta that “Telemedicine and online prescriptions are changing the way we do medicine.”
“We have to be cautious of its implications and thoughtful in its use when it comes to serious issues like abortion,” he added.
Nenshi’s comments, according to Fonseca, allow for the perfect time for Smith, who leads the ruling United Conservative Party (UCP), to “seize” an “opportunity” and give pro-life Albertans a strong pro-life bill banning “mail-order” abortions.
“We wholeheartedly agree that Danielle Smith’s UCP government should walk through the door that Nenshi opened,” Fonseca told LifeSiteNews.
“If even a far-left Marxist like Nenshi is hesitant about the prudence and safety of allowing online prescriptions and self-administration of the chemical abortion pill, without ever physically meeting a doctor, the UCP should be doubly concerned.”
At-home chemical abortions are typically done through the ingestion of drugs like Mifegymiso. According to the drug product literature listed on Health Canada’s website, in addition to killing the unborn child, there is a risk of serious harm and even death to women who use the drug.
In January, CLC reported on a 19-year-old Canadian girl who died after taking Mifegymiso.
Despite these safety concerns, and the fact that it kills innocent children in the womb, Health Canada approved the use of the abortion pill in 2015 and the drug became widely available in 2017.
Alberta covers cost of abortifacients but doctors and nurses not mandated to participate
In Alberta, a facility called the Alberta Medical Abortion Clinic, located in Calgary, Alberta, offers prescriptions for abortifacients such as Mifegymiso after “virtual, telephone and in-person appointments to accommodate different preferences and circumstances” so that a person can “choose the option that best suits your needs.”
The facility says it is not affiliated with Alberta Health Services; however, the provincial regulator does cover the cost of an abortion, chemical or otherwise.
LifeSiteNews contacted Alberta Health Minister Adriana LaGrange’s about Mifegymiso and “at-home” telemedicine abortions but has not yet received a response.
As it stands in Alberta, doctors and nurses are not mandated to participate in or be complicit in abortions or euthanasia, despite government funding being used to cover the costs of both fatal procedures.
The UCP government under Smith has promised to protect doctors’ conscience rights.
According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), which bills itself as an “independent, not-for-profit organization,” when accounting for abortions using oral treatments such as Mifegymiso, there were 87,485 abortions in Canada in 2021 alone.
Additionally concerning was that a total of 21,000 of the abortions involved women under age 25.
The CIHI data shows that surgical abortions comprised 63 percent of all abortions, with chemically induced abortions accounting for 37 percent.
According to the CIHI, “the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic may have further shifted abortion services to non-hospital settings.”
CLC and other pro-life groups have consistently called out the known lack of safety of Mifegymiso, also known as RU-486 in the United States.
Regardless of the actions of governments, the Catholic Church unchangeably teaches that abortion is murder, and prohibits the procedure in all cases. The Church also prohibits the use of other anti-life protocols such as artificial contraception and the so-called morning-after pill. The Church also proclaims that the right to life of every innocent person from conception to natural death is a truth knowable by reason and contained in the natural law.