A pro-life group is seeking to overthrow legislation that bans public disclosure of abortion statistics.
Ted Gerk of Campaign Life Coalition B.C. has applied to the provincial Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for a hearing to obtain the number of abortions performed at Vancouver General and Kelowna General hospitals.
“If these statistics are released, the legislation falls and will be made moot,” said Gerk, a Kelowna resident.
“No topic should be off limits in a democratic society. We would not tolerate this on any other issue. Yet we seem to think it is O.K. for this.”
In 2001, the province passed a bill censoring abortion-related statistics other than the total provincial numbers or the breakdown per health region.
Gerk hopes the disclosure of statistics of the publicly funded procedure would impact health-care funding but “to get to that point, we’ll need detailed information the government is not willing or wanting to give.”
Gerk initially applied to the hospitals for their numbers last year, requesting figures such as the total number of abortions performed between 2002 and 2008, the number of infants born alive after an abortion, and the total number of deaths associated with abortion.
Both hospitals denied his request, citing compliance to the law.
Thursday, Gerk said he will happily settle for the number of abortions performed, stressing he is only asking for statistics, not specific names.
Both hospitals have filed applications opposing his request for a hearing.
“We believe the privacy commissioner has already ruled in this matter and there would be nothing new to bring forward at an inquiry,” said spokeswoman Patty Glaim, referring to a 2005 application for abortion statistics at Kelowna General which was rejected by the privacy commissioner in 2007.
Vancouver Coastal Health is also opposing the hearing request.
“There have been previous orders from the privacy office that are similar to this situation,” said Vancouver Coastal Health spokeswoman Anna Marie D’Angelo.
“There are no reasonable grounds for this application to succeed.”
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.