Letter to the Editor - MacLean's Magazine

Philip G. Ney, MD, MA, FRCPC, RPsych

© March 2006

Dear Editor,

While it may be true for Stephen Harper that abortion “never was and never will be my issue, in my entire career,” he has just maneuvered himself into an extremely awkward corner. What happens when abortion turns out to be the experience that does more damage to the health of women in Canada more than anything else? What if he discovers that it affects 50-60% of all women by the age of 45? What if he has to now concern himself about how the federal government has to cut back on payments to the provinces for health-related funding? Will it still not be “my issue”? To say that is to say he disregards the health of women in Canada whatever the evidence, and the evidence is growing very rapidly that abortion is extremely damaging. Without any prompting by me, the professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the University of Moscow sitting in his office told me, “Of all the experiences damaging the health of women in the Federation of Russia, there is nothing greater than abortion.”

Yours sincerely,
Phillip G. Ney, MD