Fate of N.B. clinic speaks to unfinished fight for abortion access in region

ST. JOHN’S, N.L.

The announcement last week that the only private abortion clinic in New Brunswick would close its doors has made abortion a tangible issue in the federal election and highlighted regional barriers Canadians face accessing the procedure.

More than 30 years after the 1988 Morgentaler Supreme Court decision struck down laws restricting abortion in Canada, advocates say access is still a challenge across the country, with rural Canadians at the greatest disadvantage.

Clinic 554 in Fredericton blamed its impending closure on a long-standing provincial refusal to fund surgical abortions performed outside a hospital. Critics say the policy is symptomatic of obstacles faced in some parts of Atlantic Canada, where people seeking abortions have been confronted by decades of government resistance, a limited number of clinics, lingering social conservatism and a severe doctor shortage.

Sarah Kennell, director of government relations with Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights, noted a lack of political will to confront policies like New Brunswick’s. She also highlighted the fact that none of the Atlantic provinces offer abortions after 16 weeks, as opposed to 23 weeks in other parts of the country.

This limitation forces people to travel to other provinces and sometimes to the United States at their own expense, she said. “The burden to access what is considered to be a medically necessary service is quite high,” Kennell said.

New Brunswick is the only province where surgical abortions are only covered if performed in a hospital - a cause for concern “under the accessibility and comprehensiveness criteria of the (Canada Health Act),” according to Health Canada’s latest annual report.

After Fredericton’s Morgentaler clinic closed in 2014, citing lack of provincial funding, the Liberal government of the day removed a regulation requiring women seeking hospital abortions to have two doctors certify the procedure as medically necessary. But the regulation limiting funding to abortions performed in hospitals remained.

It’s this barrier that has forced Clinic 554’s hand, according to its medical director Dr. Adrian Edgar. He said many of his patients can’t afford the procedure, which costs between $700 and $850, and expenses have become too great to keep the clinic open.