CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I., November 9, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The government of Prince Edward Island has pledged to keep the province abortion-free after a renewed push for greater access to the deadly procedure.
The media pressure follows the formation of a new abortion lobby group called the PEI Reproductive Rights Organization, who are planning a rally for Nov. 19th to call on the government to bring abortion back to the province.
The province has been labeled the "life sanctuary" after being abortion-free for over 25 years. That was the result of a successful campaign by pro-life advocates in the 1980s to lobby hospital boards throughout the province to cease providing abortions.
The government does pay for women to obtain abortions off-island, however, primarily in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
The abortion push has found support from the province's Green party, which placed third in this fall's election at 4.4% of the vote.
According to Ann Marie Tomlins of PEI Right to Life, the lobby group has been blanketing the University of PEI campus with pro-abortion literature to spread the fact that the province will pay for abortions off-island.
Tomlins emphasized that there are numerous medically-necessary procedures for which PEI citizens must travel off-island at their own expense. "So why should we be paying transportation for somebody to do what's an elective surgery, or choice, an abortion?" she asked.
"I don't think there should be abortions anywhere," she added.