BRITISH COLUMBIA

Clinic plan moved up after court ruling

“COUN si

Continued from page 1

When the Supreme Court in a 5-2 major-
ity decision struck down Section 251 of the
Criminal Code, therapeutic abortion com-
mittees were also effectively struck down.
Section 251, enacted in 1969, had stated that
abortions were illegal unless performed in
an “accredited hospital” after approval by
that hospital’s “therapeutic abortion com-
mittee.”

Madam Justice Bertha Wilson in her
comments on the ruling said “Section 251 of
the. Criminal Code limits the pregnant
woman’s access to abortion, violates her
right to life, liberty and security ... .

“Section 251 of the Criminal Code takes
a personal and private decision away from
the woman and gives it to a committee that
bases its decision on criteria entirely unre-
lated to the (pregnant woman’s) priorities
and aspirations,” Justice Wilson stated.

Comments by Chief Justice Brian Dick-
son also condemned the committee system:
“Section 251 clearly interferes with a wom-
an’s physical and bodily integrity. Forcing a
woman, by threat of criminal sanction, to
carry a fetus to term unless she meets certain
criteria unrelated to her own priorities and
aspirations, is a profound interference with
a woman’s body and thus an infringement
of security of the person.

“A second breach of the right to security
of the person occurs independently as a
result of the delay in obtaining therapeutic
abortions caused by the mandatory proce-
dures of Section 251 (the committee system)
which results in a higher probability of
complications and greater risk. The harm to
the psychological integrity of women seek-
ing abortions also was clearly established,”
he stated.

- But despite these comment and others in
the ruling which clearly state that the abor-
tion committee approval system is a viola-
tion of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms,
B.C. Health Minister Peter Dueck insisted
that even if it is necessary to establish
“provincially-mandated committees” that
will provide ‘“‘a second opinion”, the pro-
vince will only fund committee-approved
abortion services.

Doctors then will have to bill privately
for abortions provided in clinics or in their
offices. However, fees at a free-standing
clinic in Vancouver will be on a sliding scale
based on the woman’s ability to pay, Brig-
house stated.

In Toronto, where the Harbord Street
abortion clinic has operated for some years
now, abortion services were never denied

because of a woman’s inability to pay. But

the Ontario government in light of the
Supreme Court ruling has now announced
that Ontario Hospital Insurance will pay
doctors for abortion procedures, whether
carried out in clinics or hospitals.

And that is clearly the standard that
should prevail in this province in the wake
of the Supreme Court decision, Brighouse
declared. “‘We will not stand for any medi-
cal system that provides one standard of
health care for the rich and another for the,
poor.”

“This government has shown its con-
tempt for women and its contempt for the
Supreme Court of Canada. We will fight it
every_way we can. We are declaring war,”
she said.

Noting that the Supreme Court decision
had removed the main obstacle to the open-
ing of a Vancouver clinic by eliminating the
threat of criminal action taken against doc-
tors who perform abortions outside of hos-
pitals, Brighouse called on doctors to
“come forward and join in the planning for
the clinic. We will open as soon as the build-
ing is ready and the staff is in place.”

Brighouse said later that the coalition
hoped to open a clinic in Vancouver within
four to six weeks.

Hutchinson also criticized the provincial
government’s approach to health care fund-

ABORTION |

[4

*

From left to right: Rev. Barbara Blakely, Anglican priest; Pat Brighouse, B.C. Coalition for Abortion Clinics; Pamela Cooley,
Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre and Dr. Ingrid Paicey, B.C. Physicians for Choice at Vancouver rally Thursday to
celebrate historic Supreme Court ruling which overturned Canada’s abortion law after 20-year fight.

ing and its anti-abortion agenda. Citing the
cutbacks in heart surgery and hospital beds
and the inadequate funding of the Child-
ren’s Hospital and the AIDS program, she
charged “‘in B.C., highwavs take precedence
over health care.

“But we will link up with the many and

varied health advocacy groups in the pro-
vince and we will fight the need for funding
as a united front.”

Joan Smallwood, NDP MLA for Surrey
Guildford, wound up the rally with a mes-
sage to the Vander Zalm government.
““Women have come this far and we’re not

turning back. We will have safe, accessible
medical services including abortion in every
community of this province. We will join
with every group that is fighting for rights
and dignities of the people of this province.
Mr. Vander Zalm, you’ve got one hell of a

TRIBUNE PHOTO — ANGELA KENYON

fight on your hands.”

Council mulls privatization action

The piecemeal privatization of health
care through the contracting out of indi-
vidual services is what the government has
in mind for British Columbia, a community-
labour conference in Vancouver was
warned.

Jack Gerow of the Hospital Employees
Union said that includes the possible sale
of operating rooms in public hospitals, “so
that those without the money can not
afford to jump the line, and will face even
longer lineups (for surgery).”

But, said Gerow, addressing the second
meeting of the Council for Public Services
Jan. 27, the experience in Great Britain
shows that united opposition of commun-
ity and labour can force even hard-line
governments to rescind privatization mea-
sures.

“They can change the law by standing
together and fighting privatization,”
Gerow asserted.

~The HEU business manager was one of
several who addressed the question of

fighting the Social Credit government’s
privatization program.

Participants suggested several future
methods of fighting federal and provincial
privatization programs and agreed to
meet again Feb. 9 at the Maritime Labour
Centre to elect chairmen and a steering
committee for the council, which was
formed of trade union, community and
women’s groups late last year.

Participants also backed plans to
release a series of leaflets on various issues

of privatization and to broaden the base of

opposition to include, among other enti-
ties, municipal governments in the anti-
privatization fight.

Diane Jolly, vice-president of the Can-
adian Union of Public Employees’ B.C.
division, said municipalities have been eye-
ing union pension funds to finance
BIAs — business improvement areas —
a provincial scheme allowing municipali-

JOLLY

GEROW .

ties to, in essence, privatize municipal ser-
vices through area initiative programs.

Jean Swanson of End Legislated Pov-
erty noted several government services
have been privatized over the years, and
said child care and public housing are on
the agenda.

Swanson noted that a private company,
the Hewitt Group, has been engaged by
the ministry of social services and housing
to find jobs for welfare recipients,
although the effort has been largely unsuc-
cessful.

And, she said, ‘““‘We have a free trade
agreement which says that governments
can not set up public monopolies unless
the United States agrees ... so the poten-
tial for setting up new public services is
gone.”

Swanson noted that privatization
schemes such as that set for Canada Post
bring with them low wages and a non-
unionized work force for the benefit of
corporate profits.

“We're really looking at profitized
children, profitized services, profitized
housing and we sure need to go together
and fight back,” she said.

Ron Tuckwood of the Office and Tech-
nical Employees Union, Local 378, said
the contracting out of cafeteria services
and the planned contracting of meter-
reading functions at B.C. Hydro indicate

KENNEDY SWANSON
that every aspect of the Crown corpora-
tion is for sale.

“Make no mistake about it, the restraint
program the Social Credit party started in
1983 is still going on,” said Vancouver and
District Labour Council secretary Frank
Kennedy.

Among the suggested actions against
privatization were a demonstration in Vic-
toria when the legislature reopens, demon-
strations at Premier Bill Vander Zalm’s
Fantasy Gardens in Richmond, occupa-
tion of some buildings and mock trials.

“We still haven’t convinced everyone
within community organizations, individ-
ual citizens or within the trade union
movement that privatization is bad,”
Kennedy acknowledged.

“You don’t convince people that privat-
ization is bad when you offer to buy (the
to-be privatized service),” he asserted.

Gerow said the government has created
an “artificial demand” for privatized ser-
vices by cutting funding for public health
care. And he said privatization was part of
a corporate agenda that also is manifested
in the nurses strike in Alberta.

He*said he had just returned from a
rally of the United Nurses of Alberta and
had “never seen such determination on the
part of workers.

“They are going to win,” he declared to
applause.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 3, 1988 « 3