Paul Tuns:
In three videos released by Right Now, a pro-life group, abortuary staff and a hospital worker indicated to the organization’s cofounder, Alissa Golob, who was five months pregnant and pretended to be seeking an abortion, that she could obtain an abortion for any reason, or no reason.
Abortion advocates and pro-abortion politicians have claimed that late-term abortions are only committed when there is a so-called medical reason such as risks to the mother’s health or a prenatal diagnosis of the preborn child. But when Golob, who was 21 to 23 weeks pregnant when she visited the abortion facilities in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver – a fourth video of Golob going to a Calgary abortuary was scheduled to be released after The Interim went to press – she was told that she could obtain an abortion, although she might have to go to a nearby hospital to have it committed.
On Nov. 12, Right Now released a video showing Golob, then 22 weeks pregnant, visiting the Cabbagetown Clinic in Toronto. She was told that the abortuary could do a hastily arranged abortion if she paid cash, and that it did not matter if both the mother and preborn child were healthy. If Golob needed time, the staffer said, “I send them to Women’s College Hospital,” saying, “they don’t have a limit.” Several days later, Right Now released another video of Golob, then 21 weeks pregnant who went to the CLSC Sainte-Catherine health centre in Montreal. The abortion staffer told Golob that if she was unsure about having an abortion, they could delay an appointment because she “has time.” Asked about how much time she had to make the decision, the staffer said “It’s dependent on the doctor. That’s why I gotta check the doctor for next week. For next week it’s good … you have max two weeks … Otherwise you can have an abortion, but it’s another step.”
That “another step” was explained as: “you need to go to the hospital for an induction. And, it’s just, it’s like a delivery, but with a dead fetus.” A third video, released on Nov. 19, shows Golob, then 23 weeks pregnant, asking for an abortion at B.C. Women’s Health Hospital in Vancouver despite having no health issues. Golob was told by the hospital worker, “So here in B.C. the dilation and evacuation procedures or procedural abortion is available up to 24 weeks and 6 days.” After that, the worker told Golob, she would probably have to go to the United States to procure an abortion.
In none of the three videos was it suggested that Golob or her preborn baby had to have a health reason for the abortion. When Golob asked the Cabbagetown Women’s Clinic worker if she needed a medical reason to request an abortion at 22 weeks, the worker replied, “that kind of abortion care hasn’t been in Canada since the 1960s.” She explained, “understand that a lot of women do this because they already have two kids and they can’t care for another one” or “patients cannot complete their plans, which generally involves education, employment and things like that.” Emphasizing the point, the worker said, “the reasons to do it are valid reasons.”
Conservative MP Rosemary Falk (BattlefordsLloydminster-Meadow Lake) posted the video on X (formerly Twitter) and tweeted, “Canada has no law limiting abortion at any stage. This video shows that late-term procedures are taking place here, despite frequent claims to the contrary. To truly support women, we need open and honest dialogue.”
Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis (Haldimand-Norfolk) tweeted, “Deep down, we know that late-term abortion shocks the conscience of most Canadians, so instead of confronting it honestly, we simply pretend it doesn’t happen?”
Campaign Life Coalition national president Jeff Gunnarson told The Interim, “These videos show, contra the insistence of pro-abortion advocates and politicians, that lateterm abortions, can be accessed easily,” noting that they are a reality repeatedly pointed out by pro-lifers in Canada. The National Post had a cover story about the videos in its Nov. 22 edition and editorialized that Canada should have a debate about late-term abortion.
In 2013, then Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett responded to a National Post column by Jonathan Kay, insisting, “The assertion that lateterm abortions can be performed ‘for any reason, or no reason at all’ is just not true.” Bennett claimed no abortionist would commit an abortion “to a healthy mother with a healthy fetus” in the later stages of pregnancy.
A 2017 paper by the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada stated that “most of the small number of abortions performed over 20 weeks’ gestation are done to protect the patient’s physical health or because of serious fetal abnormalities.”
Golob said on social media that Right Now’s videos prove third-trimester abortions are being committed for “no medical reason whatsoever” in Canada. Gunnarson said that while the revelations shock the conscience of many who see the videos, he reminds Canadians that “all abortions [are] a moral evil regardless of the gestational age of the child killed at the hands of the abortionist.” CLC reiterated its position calling for legislation outlawing all abortions without exception.
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