More than 3,400 Canadians have so far signed a Campaign Life Coalition petition that calls on New Brunswick not to expand access to abortion nor fund a private abortion clinic as a legal challenge to how the province funds abortions moves forward in the courts.

“Some pro-abortion activists are calling on the government of New Brunswick to bail out Clinic 554 by paying for the abortion procedures it commits,” the petition states. “A number of meddling politicians from outside the province are also demanding the same.”

The CLC petition calls on Premier Blaine Higgs and his government not to change the law.

“Taxpayers do not want their hard-earned money lining the pockets of those who get rich off the human tragedy of abortion,” the petition said.

Funding for abortions in New Brunswick has been an ongoing battle for years, and now a New Brunswick court has given the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) status in the fight to fund more abortion services.

The CCLA filed a formal lawsuit against the Government of New Brunswick and what is called Regulation 84-20, which only permits three hospitals in two cities to offer abortion services, which those who want more access say unfairly limits abortion services.

Under Regulation 84-20, the CCLA argues most New Brunswick residents do not have “adequate abortion services in their local community.”

At the beginning of June the CCLA won the first round of its lawsuit when the New Brunswick Court of Queen’s Bench granted the organization standing in the courts to pursue its lawsuit.

The province had tried to have the case dismissed by arguing that the CCLA was not arguing on behalf of a specific abortion being sought by an individual and thus should not have standing to seek legal recourse through the courts.

“The court’s decision not only recognizes CCLA’s status to bring forward the claim, but also explicitly states that the government’s position opposing it was surprising and unreasonable,” said the CCLA’s Noa Mendelsohn Aviv.