LILLEY: Time to note the hypocrisy around abortions and private clinics

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The reemergence of the abortion debate is exposing rank hypocrisy proper right here in Canada. I’m speaking about the truth that on this nation, our chief rails towards the concept of personal well being clinics, except it’s for abortion by which case it’s fantastic.

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In additional than 20 years of masking politics on this nation, I’ve seen repeatedly that any politician who dares to look to the non-public sector to assist ship well being providers shall be denounced for attempting to destroy our public well being system.

Abortion, although, will get a cross.

The closest medical clinic of any type to Parliament Hill is the Morgentaler abortion clinic on Financial institution St. I’ve sat within the Home of Commons and listened to Liberal and New Democrat MPs warn concerning the risks of personal well being care, the risks of electing Conservatives lest they permit the non-public sector in.

These similar MPs defend the Morgentaler clinic in Ottawa, in Toronto, in St. John’s. They defend Clinic 554, a privately owned abortion clinic in Fredericton, N.B.

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Final summer time, the Trudeau authorities withheld funding to the New Brunswick authorities for refusing to fund this non-public abortion clinic. Simply weeks later, they threatened to withhold funds from Saskatchewan for utilizing non-public MRI clinics to assist clear the backlog of diagnostic assessments wanted as a consequence of COVID-19.

Both non-public supply of well being providers inside the public system is appropriate, or it’s not.

To say that it’s acceptable for abortion however not different providers is absurd. However that’s what the present political institution needs you to imagine.

They need you to imagine that the well being system would collapse if privately owned abortion clinics don’t get more cash, but in addition that the well being system will collapse if the federal government contracts your knee or hip surgical procedure to a privately owned clinic.

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Because the creation of our single-payer well being system, it has all the time been a mix of private and non-private supply and the very fact is, the general public is okay with that. The general public doesn’t care about who the well being care supplier is, they simply need to pay with their well being card and never a bank card.

A current report on rebuilding our well being system by consulting agency Accenture requested Canadians what they considered non-public corporations offering care inside the general public system. Throughout the nation, 72% stated they have been both supportive or impartial on the difficulty.

The COVID-19 pandemic uncovered an terrible lot of issues inside our public well being system, together with the shortcoming to proceed offering fast entry to mandatory care in a disaster. We have now an unimaginable backlog of wanted surgical procedures, diagnostics and coverings that Canadians are determined for.

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We must be searching for methods to harness the non-public sector, to leverage its skill to construct and transfer rapidly, to assist clear this away. We must be taking a look at the perfect practices of public well being programs like France, Britain and elsewhere the place they already do that.

Utilizing impartial, and sure non-public, surgical centres specializing in operations like knees, hips, cataracts, and different procedures simply moved out of the hospital setting, would make sense. We must be speaking about this and transferring rapidly in that path.

As an alternative, we’re advised that any involvement of the non-public sector is a risk to our system.

Aside from abortion.

It’s time to deal with the hypocrisy and begin fixing the system.