Statistics Canada’s “Scandalous” Failure to Report Accurate Abortion Numbers
“Stats Canada has records available within thirty days of, for example, the number of baby chicks hatched in the previous month in the entire country, yet stats for the number of abortions are three years old.”
By Thaddeus M. Baklinski
OTTAWA, August 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Statistics Canada released its most recent numbers for abortion in Canada on Monday. The data reported are from 2002 to 2006, which StatsCan claims are the most current numbers available, and on the surface would seem to indicate a reduction in the numbers of abortions committed in Canada, dropping from 105,535 in 2002 to 91,377 in 2006.
However, the government statistics agency may in fact be manipulating the numbers to hide the true state of abortion in Canada, says one Canadian pro-life leader.
Significantly absent from the 2006 data are any numbers for abortions in British Columbia, New Brunswick and Manitoba. The StatsCan report says in a footnote that numbers for these provinces are “too unreliable to be published.”
Hospital and clinic abortions for Prince Edward Island are not reported at all for any of these years.
John Hof, president of Campaign Life Coalition BC, told LifeSiteNews.com that the refusal by Statistics Canada to provide true and up to date data for abortion in Canada in scandalous.
“It’s scandalous that no accurate record-keeping is being done, and the records we get are so scant and out of date,” Hof said.
Illustrating the disparity between abortion stats and those of just about anything else the government keeps track of, Hof observed, “Stats Canada has records available within thirty days of, for example, the number of baby chicks hatched in the previous month in the entire country, yet stats for the number of abortions are three years old.”
“The way stats on abortion are recorded in Canada would not be tolerated in any other industry or about any other subject,” Hof said. “They keep track of everything, expect the number of babies that die.”
2006 is the first year that the national abortion statistics have come out with no numbers for BC, New Brunswick and Manitoba. “BC has legislation in place that prevents abortion stats from being released to anyone,” Hof explained and added that an initiative concerning freedom of information legislation is under consideration by pro-life groups in the province.
“For three provinces to not have numbers included in the report,” Hof continued, “from BC where there is a law against releasing the information, New Brunswick where the province is fighting a court battle with abortionist Henry Morgentaler over government funding of abortion in his private clinic, and Manitoba which has been in litigation about government funding of abortion, its obvious they just don’t want people to know.”
“These numbers are a sham,” Hof concludes. “If you add the 2005 numbers for those provinces (18,322) to the 2006 totals you come up with a number of 109,699 (not 91,377 as StatsCan reports). This is the highest annual total on the chart and a very concerning number.”
See related LSN articles:
New Brunswick Will Not Appeal Court Ruling Allowing Abortionist Morgentaler to Sue Province
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/aug/09081904.html
Manitoba Private Surgical Center Asks Why Only Private Abortion Facility Gets Public Funding
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/jul/04070901.html
