Blogger seeks answers on suppressed abortion information

Public deserves to know about $50-million expenditure

New secrecy rules concerning the release of abortion statistics in Ontario are being challenged by an Ottawa-area blogger.

Last January, the province amended the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) by passing Bill-122, the Broader Public Sector Accountability Act. The new law restricts the publication of data relating to the “provision of abortion services.”

There is no recorded debate in Hansard of this amendment, and the media took little notice, perhaps because it was part of a series of other amendments. It did not come to the public’s attention until after the provision came into effect and was exposed by Patricia Maloney, author of the blog “Run with Life.”