Island women have abortion access

With the announcement of Anne Wheatley and Abortion Access Now P.E.I. launching court action against the government of P.E.I., I am becoming increasingly more frustrated that these efforts are being so aggressively fought for when there is already abortion access to women a mere three hours away.

First, many essential, non-elective life saving services we could benefit from right here in P.E.I. are currently not available. One such service is a cardiac catheterization lab. In the unfortunate instance where an individual suffers a heart attack and it is determined they are in need of cardiac catheterization, that individual has to travel to Halifax or Saint John, N.B. to have this provided.

According to current ACLS guidelines (the governing body which sets national standards in advanced life saving practice), if symptoms have appeared within 12 hrs, cardiac catheterization is required within 90 minutes of that individual presenting to the emergency department. Statistically, this ensures the greatest chance of survival for that person. On P.E.I., we can wait hours to days before arriving out of province to receive this essential service.

This is just one example of the many urgent services we require but do not receive here on P.E.I. Therefore, I am calling on the residents of P.E.I. to become more knowledgeable about what those services are and to think about this when it comes to pressuring the government about where to allocate their limited resources.

If I become acutely ill and need life saving procedures, I want to know they are going to be there for me in a timely manner. I don't want precious dollars to be directed toward providing a service that is not essential and is indeed not, despite much propaganda, either legal (it was decriminalized, not made legal) or a constitutional right.

Secondly, there are many provinces across Canada that have the very same access to abortion service, 3 or MORE hours away from any given area where a woman may reside. There is no argument in those provinces about the service though because due to the size of the province it is still offered within the same province. We happen to live in a smaller regional area, so it is more than reasonable to make this service available in Halifax and to expect the cost of the travel to be covered by the person using the service.

The so called abortion debate, is not as cut and dry as many believe. It is a complex issue and comes with a spectrum of considerations. And no, Mr. Editor, the government does not have to concede on the abortion issue. It's not the right thing to do and it has nothing to do with it being 2016.