On May 5th, the British Columbia government decided to celebrate International Midwives Day by authorizing midwives to participate in something antithetical to their purpose: aborting pre-born children.
For millennia, midwives have helped women during one of the most difficult and vulnerable times of their lives. And in eras where childbirth was a potentially lethal process (many mothers and pre-born children died during or soon after birth due to medical complications or infections), midwives did their best to preserve the life of both the mother and the child. Today, although there are only 500 midwives in British Columbia, they still assist with about 30% of births in the province.
But rather than only helping with delivering new life, as of April 1st, midwives in British Columbia can participate in delivering death to a pre-born child. With this policy change, midwives will now be permitted to prescribe the abortion pill Mifegymiso, also called RU 486. According to the government’s press release, midwives in Quebec and Saskatchewan are already allowed. The government claims that,
“by allowing midwives to prescribe Mifegymiso, the Province is improving midwife-led abortion care and increasing access to safe, confidential and timely services closer to home.”
“Midwife-led abortion care” – now that’s an oxymoron if ever there was one.
And here’s another self-contradicting statement from the government’s press release:
“These measures build on ongoing investments to ensure women and gender‑diverse people have access to compassionate, equitable and comprehensive care at every stage of life.”
Care at every stage of life… except the first nine months.
Canadians need to call out this abuse of language. Care at every stage of life cannot include abortion because murder is not a form of caring. Abortion ignores the life and rights of the pre-born child. It sloughs off the God-given responsibilities of the mother.
For 57 years, the needle on abortion has only ever moved in the wrong direction. Abortion in therapeutic settings was legalized in the 1969 Criminal Code reform. That law was struck down entirely in the Morgentaler decision of 1988, leaving Canada without any law on abortion. British Columbia passed its first abortion bubble zone in 1996, and most provinces have followed suit. Health Canada approved the abortion pill in 2015. By 2017, Health Canada removed several safeguards around the abortion pill’s use. Every single province covered the cost of these abortion pills by 2019. And now midwives in three provinces can prescribe the abortion pill themselves. Canada needs to reverse course, and we need to help. Find a pro-life organization – like WeNeedALaw.ca – to learn how you can get involved in pro-life activism today.