On Friday, Joyce Arthur, executive director of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, said the policy had been meant to ensure that the government would not be funding groups that undermine human rights. But she said the lack of clarity had allowed the policy to be hijacked by conservative groups pressing their own ideological agendas.

“It was a no-brainer requirement,” she said by phone from Vancouver. “But the wording needs clarification so the issue doesn’t get misunderstood. Unfortunately, it has become a big distraction.”

The Conservative opposition leader Andrew Scheer accused Mr. Trudeau this month of using the requirement to impose his own views on Canadians. Speaking at a meeting hosted by the Mississauga Board of Trade, he said community groups were expressing alarm that they would be unable to employ youths and provide services because of their beliefs. Among the groups affected was the Southern Alberta Bible Camp, which told CBC News, the Canadian broadcaster, that it would lose about $40,000 for six summer counselor positions.

Mr. Trudeau, who has sought to balance his own Roman Catholic religious views with his commitment to abortion rights, has called the reaction to the policy a “kerfuffle.”

Both he and the employment minister, Patty Hajdu, have stressed that the policy was not intended to target religious groups.

Speaking at a town-hall meeting in Hamilton, Ontario, last week, Mr. Trudeau affirmed that Canadians were entitled to their beliefs. But he added: “When those beliefs lead to actions determined to restrict a woman’s right to control her own body, that’s where I, and I think we, draw the line as a country. And that’s where we stand on that.”

In 1988, Canada’s Supreme Court struck down the country’s then restrictive abortion law, which allowed only abortions approved by hospital committees. It said the law was unconstitutional and interfered with a woman’s right to control her own body.