As part of its annual report, the self-described “Planned Parenthood Canada” announced it helped a young non-citizen immigrant woman terminate a 24-week pregnancy at the stage where many babies can survive outside of the womb.

Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights released its 2023-2024 annual report last Monday. In it, the group mentioned its funding source of revenue and its impact through various projects, including the termination of a six-month-old pregnancy.

The group said between July 2023 and July 2024, its funding supported 504 clients in accessing “abortion care.”

The report details how the organization helped a 19-year-old who “found herself pregnant” and whose name was changed for the article to “Manpreet,” procure an abortion. Due to not being a Canadian citizen, the group said she struggled to access abortion services. When she reached out to Action Canada, she was reportedly 24 weeks along.

“We worked alongside Manpreet, navigating the healthcare system and finding a provider for her procedure when options seemed scarce,” the report said. “Despite the barriers, we secured an appointment for Manpreet. With the help of our fund, we were able to cover the costs of her procedure, removing the financial burden that had weighed so heavily on her.”

Pete Baklinski, the communications director for Campaign Life Coalition, thinks it’s outrageous that Canadian tax dollars are going to an organization that “gloats” about procuring an abortion for a pre-born baby that could be viable without its mother.

“At 24 weeks, the baby is fully developed, fully formed, working organs, reacting to the mother’s voice, reacting to light, everything is formed and functioning,” Baklinski told True North.” “Most, most people would recognize that at this point, having an abortion is, yes, you are killing a fully developed human being that is able to live without the mother.”

Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights did not respond to True North’s requests to comment.

Babies born at 24 weeks are considered extremely premature, though 70 per cent of babies born at this stage survive past the first year with the proper healthcare, according to Safer Care Victoria – an agency responsible for overseeing and improving the quality and safety of healthcare in the state of Victoria in Australia.

Baklinski said he was shocked to see the organization announce the incident as an accomplishment, as “the abortion lobby” in Canada, he said, often claims that late-term abortions are simply not happening.

One article by the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada said in 2006, for example.“It would be absurd to pass a law prohibiting something that isn’t even happening, based on the urban myth of ‘casual’ late-term abortions.” 

According to Public Health Canada, late-term abortions are rare and usually occur because of “serious medical issues.”

According to the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, an estimated 1.29 per cent of all abortions happened over 21 weeks, or 23 weeks from the last menstrual period, in 2020. Abortions after this period accounted for 960 of the estimated 74,605 abortions that happened that year.

According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, 10 abortions occurred between weeks 25-28 of pregnancy in Canada, excluding Quebec, in 2019-2020, while 20 abortions at 25 weeks or greater happened in 2018-2019.

The Montreal Gazette wrote about one woman who underwent an abortion at 35 weeks, just short of nine months, in 2016.

“Here’s the evidence out of their own mouth that (late-term abortion) actually does happen. Later abortions are happening in Canada, and they’re actually paying women to make it happen,” Baklinski said. “It showcases the hypocrisy of the pro-abortion movement here in Canada.”

Baklinski said that since a 1988 landmark Supreme Court decision in the R v. Morgentaler case, which ruled Canada’s abortion laws as unconstitutional, it’s been “open season on pre-born babies in Canada.”

“Children are our country’s most precious resource. Our fertility rate has dropped down to 1.26, which is ensuring our demographic collapse,” he said. “At this point in our country’s history, every child truly matters. Every child is needed. Every child is a national treasure.”

Baklinski wants a future government to strip funding from organizations such as this that “promote the killing of pre-born children.”

Who funds Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights?

The Action Canada report said that 57.24 per cent of its $10,722,753.77 revenues came from “domestic program grants” in 2023-2024.

When counting all federal government grants the that encompass the year 2023-2024, and excluding funds jointly granted by Global Affairs Canada to both the organization and other entities—since these are not direct deposits into the organization’s account—various federal departments granted the organization over $9.5 million.

Women and Gender Equality Canada granted the group $551,986 on Jul. 22, 2024, to run until Mar. 31, 2026. The program spending was for the “women’s program” which aims to address “financial and health systems barriers” to accessing abortion and birth control.

“While strengthening their reproductive autonomy, increased access to these services will enable them to make informed decisions about their lives, thereby fostering their economic empowerment,” the funding statement said.

In an email, Women and Gender Equality Canada ensured True North that the projects it funded at Action Canada were around hosting seminars and monitoring best practices and changes concerning abortion and contraception among others.

“None of the projects supported funding for abortions. All projects are required to include progress reports and a final report as part of standard practice,” the group told True North in an email.

Health Canada spent two payments equaling $1,958,678 on Mar. 28, 2022, to Action Canada for its Health Care Policy and Strategies Program. The listing states the funding was to invest in “emerging and demonstrated innovations in priority areas” including “end-of-life care.”

Health Canada lists the government’s euthanasia program or “Medical Assistance in Dying,” as an example of what it means by “end-of-life care.” 

On the same day, Health Canada also granted the organization $2,119,073.00 to be used until March 21, 2024, for a program called Canadian Health Systems and Programs though no description is offered beyond “mandated or core funding.”

Similarly, Indigenous Services Canada transferred $958,787 in five payment installments to Action Canada on Sept. 1, 2022, towards core funding of the “Health Promotion and Disease Prevention program.

The Public Health Agency of Canada did not describe its $2 million grant as part of an Infectious Disease Prevention and Control program on April 1, 2022, to run until March 2027.

Neither Health Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, or Indigenous Services Canada responded to True North’s requests to comment.

Global Affairs Canada is listed twice on Oct. 12, 2021 of granting $19,638,400 payments to Oxfam Canada in partnership with Action Canada, the International Planned Parenthood Federation and others. 

The seemingly two separate payments, equaling a total of nearly $40 million were part of an “International Development Assistance Program” to deliver “sexual and reproductive health services” to young women and girls in Mozambique and Uganda.