VAN MAREN: A sliver of hope, as Ottawa decides not to fund abortion activists

As the Trump administration cuts through federal funding in Washington, D.C. like a combine through a wheat field, scores of influencers have taken to X to highlight ludicrous projects the taxpayers were paying for. These projects included $32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru, $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia, and $1.5 million for DEI programs in Serbia. Conservatives have been alternatively amused and appalled.Of course, Canadian conservatives having nothing to chuckle about. The Trudeau government has been fire-hosing taxpayer money into perverse projects for a decade. Global Affairs Canada, for example — and I’m not making this up — spent $8,800 on a show called “Whose Jizz is This” by the singer Peaches. The taxpayer-funded CBC has been promoting sexualized drag entertainment to kids for years, putting out a documentary on “Drag Kids” and a TV show on a “queer, trans-feminine Muslim.”In fact, the day before the threatened tariffs were announced, the Trudeau government announced $41.5 million for 106 projects for “2SGLBTQ” groups. Or as Xtra magazine put it: “More than $40 million coming to queer organizations.” The Trudeau government should be exercising fiscal prudence in the face of the tariff threat. As usual, they are doing the precise opposite.But surprisingly, there is some rare good news on the funding front. Abortion Care Canada (formerly National Abortion Federation Canada), a national group that seeks to connect Canadians to abortion services, claims that it may have to shut down after Health Canada turned down their request for a renewal of annual funding. According to CTV, Abortion Care Canada has received around $2.2 million since they established their abortion fund in 2021. ACC asked for another $1.3 million for the upcoming fiscal year from Trudeau’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Fund but was denied.The Sexual and Reproductive Health Fund was launched in 2021 with $45 million to promote abortion access across Canada, with the Liberal budget last fall promising another $90 million over the next six years and committing to make the fund permanent. Of course, all of that is on hold now that Parliament is prorogued, and abortion groups are concerned that a changing political landscape may mean a leader who is not as committed to abortion as Trudeau.ACC executive director TK Pritchard told media outlets that the government funded 77% of the group’s operations, which included “helping” 450 people procure abortions. According to Pritchard, among their clients were “newcomers, racialized and LGBTQ clients, and those living outside of city centres.” ACC uses the taxpayer cash to pay for flights, transportation, and hotels to bring people to abortion clinics willing to perform the terminations they are seeking. In lieu of taxpayer funding, ACC is now attempting to fundraise the money—or shut down.“The reality is that unless something big changes, we will likely close. The organization will shut down. We have four to six months of funding that I can kind of piece together,” Pritchard said. Health Canada responded to press questions by stating that there simply isn’t enough money to distribute to all the groups who applied for money, and that ultimately ACC did not qualify. Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights, which CTV described as “an amalgamation of several groups that promote sexual and reproductive fights including Planned Parenthood Federation of Canada,” also saw their taxpayer funding slashed by almost 40%.The groups didn’t find out that their taxpayer funding was cut or denied until December and are now scrambling for cash.The groups claim that the demand for abortion has risen steeply over the past several years, and that many people “will not be able to access abortions as a result.” This is unequivocal — and very unexpected — good news. The Trudeau government has consistently prioritized abortion, both in rhetoric and in funding. Canada’s taxpayer-funded abortion activists, however, are warning that if incoming governments do not prioritize feticide, their services may collapse. Action Canada claims that they facilitated 100 abortions in 2021, and 600 in 2024 between January and November.“The fact that we are going to lose funding when we were already under massive pressure in terms of demand means that a lot of people will be denied moving forward,” Action Canada’s director Frédérique Chabot told CTV.At no point, it seems, does anyone ask a fundamental question: Why should the government be funding and facilitating the destruction of children in the womb? Even if one believes it is a right — which I most certainly do not — what possible incentive is there to ensure that fewer babies are born in a country that has already plunged over the demographic cliff? Indeed, even Joyce Arthur of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada — who has never encountered an abortion she won’t defend — published a paper in 2018 titled “Why Women Have Abortions.” One line, in particular, stands out: “Many women state they ‘have no real choice’ as they do not have the financial resources to support themselves and a child.”Perhaps our government might focus its efforts on preventing unwanted abortions instead of instinctively assuming, for ideological reasons, that there are only unwanted babies. Many women in Canada are having abortions they do not want because they feel they “have no real choice.” The government should be directing funding to those who desperately wish to keep their babies — like the crisis pregnancy centres they relentlessly attack.

VAN MAREN: A sliver of hope, as Ottawa decides not to fund abortion activists

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