New Brunswick Health Minister Brad Green is searching for a way to provide medicare-funded abortions after the last provincial hospital to offer the service said it could no longer do so.
INDEPTH: Abortion
Last week, the Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton announced plans to suspend its abortion service as of July 1, citing workload problems.
The decision means women in New Brunswick will have to travel to Nova Scotia or to Quebec for the service at taxpayers' expense, or pay up to $750 for abortions at the privately owned Morgentaler Clinic in downtown Fredericton.
Green said he prefers not to send women out of province for the procedure, and is hoping to find a local solution.
"What I'm saying is we're working with our regional health authorities to find a solution to this situation here in New Brunswick," the health minister said.
"And until such time as I'm convinced that's not possible — which I hope won't be the case — then we'll look at other options."
New Brunswick's medicare system will not pay for abortions unless they are performed by a gynecologist in a hospital, and only if the procedure is deemed "medically necessary" by two physicians.
Last year, the Morgentaler clinic performed approximately 600 abortions. The Chalmers Hospital performed 400.
N.B. alone in refusing funding to clinics
New Brunswick is the only province in Canada that refuses to pay any fees for abortions performed in clinics, even though the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 1988 that the procedure falls under the Canada Health Act and should be paid for by taxpayers.
The former Liberal government in Ottawa said the province of New Brunswick was violating the Canada Health Act by not providing equal access to abortions, and said it might withhold health funding until the province agreed to pay for abortions done in clinics.
Federal Health Minister Tony Clement has declined requests for interviews on the subject, saying through a spokesman that he is "aware of the situation and looking into it."
Government claims of access 'a blatant lie'
In 2004, abortion rights activist Henry Morgentaler filed suit against the province for failing to pay for abortions in his clinic. That lawsuit is still in the court system.
Morgentaler, who has spent a lifetime persuading governments to provide abortion access to Canadian women, is frustrated by the lack of response on the issue from the New Brunswick government.
"It seems like the government is delaying things all the time. It's been nearly three years already that we've been on that and nothing is happening," he said.
"We are in a situation where women really don't have other options. We do more abortions in the province of New Brunswick than any hospital there. Women are obliged to pay for a service which is supposed to be free under medicare. It is one of the worst provinces in the country as far as access to abortion is concerned."
Last year, Morgentaler wrote Premier Bernard Lord, offering to sell his clinic to the government so it could become part of the hospital system and fall under the medicare umbrella, but he said he never received an answer.
"I've had no response whatsoever," Morgentaler said. "Instead, the government is claiming all the time that there is access, which is a blatant lie."
Pregnant women may 'do desperate things'
The decision to stop offering abortions at the Chalmers Hospital also has implications to women in Prince Edward Island, many of whom travelled to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia for the procedure. No Island hospitals perform abortions, and women with unwanted pregnancies usually travel to Fredericton.
Former Morgentaler clinic director Judy Burwell sympathizes with the hospital decision to refuse the service, but worries what will happen to the pregnant women who don't have the money to pay for abortions.
"My biggest fear is that women will start looking on the internet for something they can do. Desperate women will do desperate things," she said.