rt en x :
NORTH SHORE Pro-Life Society
president Ross Labrie ... ‘‘we will
have abortion on demand mas-
querading as abortion restricted."

LOCAL reaction was mixe:

PAST president of LGH  tourd
Hilary Clark “it is a health
matter, not a criminal matter."*

: Friday to the new federa

abortion bil! tabled in the House of Commons by Justi-:

Minister Doug Lewis.

By TIMOTHY RENSHAW
News Reporter

The proposed taw allows for an
abortion at any stage of a
pregnancy if a doctor believes a
woman’s ‘‘mental, physical or
psychological health’’ is  threat-
ened.

It will be regulated under the
Canadian criminal code.

But Lewis said the bill ‘does not

“The fundamental
principle underlying
the legislation ... “‘is
that abortion is a
medical act requiring
that consultation
occur between a
woman and her

doctor...”’

Pe eh EN AVER EE SEELEY
provide foi goortion on demand.”

It also does not specify whether
an abortion must be performed in
a hospital.

The fundamental principle
underlying the legislation, accord-
ing to a government press release
“is that abortion is a me tical act
requiring that consultation occur
between a woman and her doctor
to ensure that health grounds exist
for an abortion and to allow for
society’s interest in the protection
of the fetus.””

Said Lewis: ‘The legistation of-
fers a reasonable solution to a very
difficult problem."

ile yeti

The bill, he said, was drafted
following ‘‘many months of
careful consideration and con-
sultation,’* and ‘‘balances the con-
stituticnal rights of a woman with
sociely's interests in the protection
of the fetus.””

But North Shore Pro-Life Socie-
ty president Ross Labrie said that
ualess the new abortion bill pro-
vided some guidelines as to the
precise definition of health ‘‘we
will have abortion on demand
masquerading as abortion
restricted."’

He said he was also concerned
that the proposed legislation ap-
parently did not prohibit abortions
from being performed in abortion
clinics.

Quality of care in such clinics,
he said, has been shown in various
studies to be ‘not as desirable as it
should be.’*

But Labrie said he was happy
that the federal government had
built no time restriction into the
abortion lesistation “that decides
an infant younger than another is
more expendable.””

Past president of the Lions Cite
Hospital Board, Hilary Clark, said
Friday she was reasonably happy
with the way the federal govern-
ment was atlempting to defuse the
abortion issue.

“PE othink they've done the best
job possible given the cir-
curnstanees, ” Clark said.

But she added that the abortion
legislation should be regulated
through Canada’s health act, not
its criminal code, because ‘cit is a

See Gov't
Page 2

os

ee

Makeup
for

the

bold

PAGE 14

News 985-2531 Classified 986-6222) Distribution 986-1337 52 pages 28¢
Bag

November 5, 1989

PROCEDURE LEGAL IF HEALTH THREATENED

eral abort

on bil

Int ota: canazn itcion
pen eat Pea:

NEWS photo Terry Peters

LEGION BRANCH 118 poppy chairman Valerie Campbell vias a poppy on branch first vice-president

Roy Mosdell while Keith Crampton, poppy chairman for unit 45 of the Army Navy & Air Force Veterans

looks on. Legion members will be out on North Shore streets selling poppies this week in preparation for
Remembrance Pay ceremonies November 11.