[ Originally published on April 26th, 2014 ]
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In response to the outcry stemming from an article posted on page 6 of the April 28th, 2014 edition of the B.C. [British Columbia] Catholic newspaper, entitled “Irreverent Acts Remind Us Of What We’ve Lost,” the British Columbia Health Ministry has admitted that the remains of babies that were destroyed by abortions in Canada’s British Columbia facilities are ending up in a waste-to-power facility in the United States, providing electricity for residents of Canada and the U.S. [United States of America].
In an email to the B.C. Catholic, the province’s Health Ministry said that the bio-medical waste that is shipped to the U.S. to be incinerated includes:
“… human tissue, such as surgically removed cancerous tissue, amputated limbs and fetal tissue.”
“The ministry understands that some is transferred to Oregon. There, it is incinerated in a waste-to-energy plant,” the email stated.
The Ministry claims that the contractors handling the province’s bio-medical waste follow health and safety protocols, as well as federal, provincial and local regulations. B.C. health authorities have a standing contract with the medical waste management firm Stericycle, which has been heavily criticized by anti-abortion groups, because it disposes of aborted fetuses that are collected from family planning clinics, such as Planned Parenthood.
Kristan Mitchell, Executive Director of the Oregon Refuse and Recycling Association, told the B.C. Catholic that the bio-medical waste likely ends up at the Covanta Marion waste-to-energy facility in Oregon, since it is the only local facility that uses waste to power the grid. The facility recently confirmed that it still receives and incinerates B.C. medical waste.
The facility burns waste in two massive boilers at a temperature of about 2,000° Fahrenheit. The heat transfers into water tubes, which creates steam to drive turbines, which generate electricity. The incinerator burns about 800 tons of medical waste each year.
Aside from the moral argument that can be made in regard to burning aborted fetuses in order to create electricity which is then sold to the unaware public for a profit, another huge concern of local residents is the lack of sufficient testing to determine the long-term cumulative environmental and health effects from the emissions, which have been found to contain dioxin, mercury, lead, arsenic and cadmium.
One of the country’s leading hospitals, Addenbrooke's in Cambridge, incinerated 797 fetuses that were below 13 weeks gestation at their own waste-to-energy plant. The mothers were told the remains had been “cremated.”
Another waste-to-energy facility at Ipswich Hospital, operated by a private contractor, incinerated 1,101 fetal remains between 2011 and 2013.
Amanda Holden of U.K.’s Channel 4 broke the story.
After this news surfaced, the U.K. Department of Health issued a nation-wide ban on the practice.
Health Minister Dr. Dan Poulter called the practice “totally unacceptable,” saying, “That is why I have asked Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS Medical Director, to write to all NHS hospital trusts, to make it clear that it must stop now.”
After this news surfaced, the U.K. Department of Health issued a nation-wide ban on the practice.
Health Minister Dr. Dan Poulter called the practice “totally unacceptable,” saying, “That is why I have asked Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS Medical Director, to write to all NHS hospital trusts, to make it clear that it must stop now.”
Similarly, officials in Marion County, Oregon have halted the burning of medical waste containing aborted fetuses [albeit temporarily], while an investigation is undertaken. In a recently-held emergency county commission meeting, commissioners made a formal vote to halt all medical waste shipments and to draw up new procedures that will specifically include the removal of fetal tissue.
Marion County Chairpersons Sam Brentano and Janet Carlson made the decision, saying:
“Bottom line: I’m not going to facilitate abortion. It’s the ultimate disrespect to innocence.” Adding, “No rule or law has been broken, but there’s an ethical standard that’s been broken.”
Stay conscious my friends.
~ Merit Freeman
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