CLC denounces Trudeau’s move to strip pro-life pregnancy centres of charitable tax status
Campaign Life Coalition denounces Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s move to remove charitable tax status from pro-life organizations that help vulnerable pregnant women in crisis.
On December 16, Mr. Trudeau tasked Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland with a mandate to, among other things, “introduce amendments to the Income Tax Act to make anti-abortion organizations that provide dishonest counselling to pregnant women about their rights and options ineligible for charitable status.” Mr. Trudeau’s mandate to Freeland was part of his 2021 election platform where he stated that a re-elected Liberal government would “no longer provide charity status to anti-abortion organizations,” specifically naming “Crisis Pregnancy Centres.”
“Trudeau is attacking the epitome of what it means to be charitable,” said Jeff Gunnarson, President of Campaign Life Coalition (CLC). “Pregnancy resource centres help tens of thousands of new moms and pregnant moms in crisis each year. They give of their donated resources and ask for nothing but the ability to offer their donors a charitable tax receipt. With this mandate, Mr. Trudeau, a self-proclaimed feminist, is attacking mothers and babies at their most vulnerable stage in life.”
About 150 pregnancy resource centres across the country not only provide vulnerable women with free pregnancy tests, diapers, baby clothes, baby food and many other baby items, but they help meet clients' physical, emotional, legal, and spiritual needs. Without charity status, these pro-woman, life-affirming pregnancy centres may be forced to close. Many will certainly struggle financially. In the end, this will mean less help for pregnant women in crisis who count on these centres to be there for them in their time of need.
Last month, CLC held a rally on Parliament Hill to help save these pro-life charities. Three MPs spoke at the rally where they called out Mr. Trudeau for going after pregnancy resource centres simply because they encourage women to choose life, not abortion, for their babies. “What our government is doing is just wrong,” said MP Leslyn Lewis (Haldimand-Norfolk) during the November 24 rally.
During the rally, Carol Butler, Executive Director of Haldimand Pregnancy Care & Family Centre in Dunnville, Ontario, invited Prime Minister Trudeau to come and visit her centre to find out more about who they are and what they do. “We're asking Mr. Trudeau to do his own research and not just listen to those who don't like us, spread hate, or don't believe in us helping our fellow citizens and communities across Canada,” she said.
Jack Fonseca, CLC’s Director of Political Operations, called Trudeau’s mandate to Freeland “despicable,” “cruel,” and “unlawful.”
“It’s absolutely despicable that Trudeau is moving ahead with punishing these amazing charities that provide diapers, baby blankets, shelter, and counselling to pregnant women in need – just because these charities have a worldview on abortion that differs from his own," he said.
"Aside from being an act of cruelty to the thousands of young Canadian women who benefit from pro-life crisis pregnancy centres, I suspect this is also discriminatory and unlawful in that it violates the constitutional guarantee of equality under the law. While Trudeau is moving to financially destroy pro-life charities, at the same time, he's funnelling tens of millions of tax dollars to activist groups that promote abortion."
About Campaign Life Coalition
Campaign Life Coalition is a national, non-profit organization involved in political action and advocacy for legal and cultural change in Canada with respect to protecting human life & the family. For more info visit www.campaignlifecoalition.com.
Media Contacts
Jeff Gunnarson, President, Campaign Life Coalition, 519-835-8201, [email protected]
Jack Fonseca, Political Operation Director, Campaign Life Coalition, 647-638-5433, [email protected]
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