Doctors in the Canadian province of Ontario will be forced to refer patients for abortions, contraception and other treatments regardless of conscientious objections following a ruling by the region’s College of Physicians.

Following a 21-3 vote, surgeons of the Ontario College of Physicians adopted the new policy on patient care, with one supporter stating it had been drafted in such a way as to ensure there was no “wiggle room” on grounds of moral or religious beliefs.
The adoption of the new policy comes despite massive objections from both medical practitioners and members of the public during a three-month online consultation process. The College of Physicians has admitted that, of 16,000 submissions received, most were against the policy move.
Submissions included appeals for the policy to be struck down from the Ontario Medical Association and the American Medical Association, whose letter of objection to the college explained that the policy “seems to us to overstate a duty to refer, risks making the physician morally complicit in violation of deeply held personal beliefs and falls short of according appropriate respect to the physician as a moral agent”.
However, Dr Marc Gabel, who led the public consultation ahead of the college vote rejected criticism of the new policy, insisting that the drafting committee had wanted no “wiggle room” on it.
“No rights are absolute,” he said, rejecting an assertion that referral by a doctor to an abortion provider makes the doctor complicit in any subsequent termination.
“The working group does not see a referral as equivalent to providing a service,” he pointed out.