By Anthony Murdoch
A recent article recounted how a 13-year-old girl was ‘sold’ to sex traffickers, found to be pregnant by her captors, and forced to take chemical abortion pills.
Richard Dur, a political consultant who serves as the executive director of Prolife Alberta, shared grisly details of how human traffickers are taking advantage of the provinceās lax abortion laws to get away with essentially whatever they want when it comes to innocent life.
In a recent opinion piece forĀ Juno News, Dur wrote about the shocking tale of a 13-year-old girl who was āsoldā to sex traffickers. She was forced to come to western Canada from the Montreal area, found to be pregnant by her captors, and was then forced to take chemical abortion pills.
Dur noted that the girlās traffickers knew that Alberta, notably the Red Deer area, was āgood business,ā as the āprofits were higher.ā
After the girl missed her period, the traffickerās minder found out, as his job was to āwatch the girls, track the bleeding, report anything that might interrupt business.ā
The men had in place a āquiet solutionā for such situations, that being abortion pills, which are widely available in Alberta without a prescription or doctor visits.
āNo doctorās visit. No age check ā not that it would have mattered. Just two pills, mailed discreetly to the door of a short-term rental in southeast Calgary. One to stop the pregnancy. One to flush it out.Ā Reproductive freedom ā streamlined for traffickers,ā Dur wrote.
After the girl was forced to take the pills, she bled all night by herself. She was forced back to āworkā the next day.
Dur noted that this girlās story is not āfictionā or āhypotheticalā but is the āhidden reality behindĀ Project EndgameĀ ā Albertaās largest human trafficking bust.ā
Police in the province have noted that traffickers have operated this way for over a decade, with victims being ācoerced, transported, and exploited.ā
However, what is left out of the picture by officials is that the reason the traffickers can get away with what they do is because of the provinceās āpermissive, on-demand abortion regime.ā
In Alberta, Mifegymiso, which became available to Canadians in 2017, is now legal and free, allowing many women to kill their unborn babies at home without any medical supervision, often resulting in severe injuries to the mother in addition to the trauma of seeing their murdered baby. No ID, pregnancy test or medical exam is required.
Dur noted that another woman, āan older girl, or the traffickerās assistant,ā can obtain the drugs easily for anyone.
āNo proof of pregnancy required. All it takes is a phone call and a mailing address. Or the trafficker standing over her, watching, listening. He never needs to leave the room. He never needs to lose control,ā he wrote.
Canadaās āfreeā contraceptive law was passed last year and came about as a result of Bill C-64. The law was introducedĀ by theĀ former government of Justin Trudeau.
Drugs for at-home chemical abortions are typically done in the form of drugs like Mifegymiso. In January, Campaign Life CoalitionāÆreported thatāÆa 19-year-old Canadian girl died after taking Mifegymiso.
Free contraception is not āliberationā but allows for āa license for exploitation,ā says Dur
Dur recounted that the story of the young women forced into the underground sex trade shows how the current system in Alberta and Canada has resulted in girls being enslaved at shocking rates.
āWhen a 13-year-old girl can be trafficked, abused, and silenced with a phone call and two pills, we must ask: who, exactly, is this system protecting? But she is not the exception,ā he wrote.
āShe is the victim of a system functioning exactly as itās been designed to ā with no guardrails. Thatās not liberation. Thatās a license for exploitation.ā
Dur observed that for all the Alberta government says it does to combat trafficking, āthereās a glaring loophole in its strategy ā one traffickers depend on.ā
āIts name? On-demand abortion access,ā he noted.
While the United Conservative Government (UCP) has promised to do more to combat traffickers, with Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis saying āHuman trafficking is a serious and often hidden crime that devastates lives and communities,ā the reality is that it is hidden due in part to abortion pills.
āA trafficker can control a young girlās body, her movements, and even the consequences of his crimes ā because Alberta allows it. If we are serious about protecting the exploited, we must be serious about whatās enabling their continued exploitation,ā Dur wrote.
Dur noted that if traffickers can cross borders āwithout inspection, why wouldnāt they exploit abortion access thatās just as unguarded?ā
According to Ellis āWeāre not just trying to make headlines ā weāre trying to change lives.ā
Dur said that the āchangeā should start today with changing the policy regarding abortion pills taken at home.
āChange the policy that lets predators cover their crimes with a phone call and a mailing address. Close the loophole that puts abortion ā chemical or surgical ā in the hands of men exploiting vulnerable girls, with no age restriction, no parental notification, no questions, and no oversight,ā he noted.
āBecause right now, Alberta rescues victims with one hand ā and hands them back to their abusers with the other.ā
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