Please bookmark this post and pass around the link so that this becomes common knowledge.
A number of outlets have published or circulated this story about Canadian women receiving EI benefits for late-term abortions.
People don't get it: how do women earn maternity benefits for not giving birth?
Here is the scoop.
The reason women are able to receive EI benefits for a late-term abortion is that an abortion after 20 week is not technically an abortion.
According to the Canadian Medical Association, from which government bodies take their cue, an abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy before fetal viability, i.e. 20 weeks.
Therefore a pregnancy termination after 20 weeks is not an abortion.
It is coded as a stillbirth.
The government makes no distinction between a natural stillbirth-- one where the baby dies of pre-existing condition-- and induced stillbirth, whereby baby dies through feticide.
Therefore, all mothers who experience stillbirth, regardless of the cause, receive maternity benefits.
Another reason why EI benefits are permitted is that it is assumed that induced stillbirth is motivated by a serious medical reason. Therefore, it is assumed that the baby was wanted and that this was a maternal act if you will. Nobody assumes that there is such a thing as an elective late-term abortion, even those these have been documented.
So there you have it, pro-lifers. Pass this along.
