Ontario PC leader Patrick Brown reiterated his party’s support for a women’s right to choose on CP24 Thursday afternoon, as it was revealed a fellow MPP tabled a petition asking for OHIP to defund abortion back in September.
Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott submitted the petition on Sept. 29, which called for abortion to be removed from the list of services covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Program.
“I support a woman’s right to choose,” Brown said.
“There was a Liberal MPP and a Conservative MPP who passed on a petition from their constiutents,” Brown said. “They both said it was not their view, it was their constituents’ view.”
Sam Oosterhoff, the newly minted 19-year-old MPP for Niagara West —Glanbrook, and Monte McNaughton, MPP for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex are also on record opposing abortion.
A third PC MPP, Chatham-Kent-Essex’s Rick Nicholls, told reporters at Queen’s Park last year that he personally does not believe in the theory of evolution.
“We’re not revisiting any of these social issues,” Brown said. “My focus is on hydro, my focus is on creating jobs. These are issues that are long settled in Canada and in Ontario.”
A PC spokesperson pointed out that Ajax Liberal MPP Joe Dickson presented a petition in the legislature on March 20, 2013, calling for OHIP to defund abortion procedures.
Several other Liberal MPPs, including Durham’s Granville Anderson, Northumberland-QunteLou Rinaldi and Mario Sergio told the Campaign for Life Coalition they supported measures to limit public funding for abortion in most circumstances.
Rinaldi and Sergio also indicated to the Campaign for Life that they supported measures to protest parents who withdraw their children from public school classes “which offend their moral principles or beliefs concerning abortion, contraception and homosexuality.”
The Liberal party introduced a new sexual health curriculum for public schools in 2015, which was criticized by numerous religious groups for its plan to discuss homosexuality, masturbation and topics including abortion.
