Restrictions to abortion services in the province are slated for removal in the new year, Premier Brian Gallant announced Wednesday. The news comes two months after the provincial election, four months after the closure of Fredericton’s Morgentaler Clinic and eight months after a group of social work student from St. Thomas University started a change.org petition to make abortion more accessible in New Brunswick. Vanessa Cormier and Kathleen Curtis were part of the group that started the petition that sparked a conversation about abortion provincially, nationally and internationally.
“I don’t think any of us expected the amount of support we received,” said Cormier. “I remember getting excited when we had 300 signatures… and right now I think we have almost 20,000 signatures.”
The recent announcement said people seeking an abortion would no longer need two doctors to deem it medically necessary. Abortions, as well as other reproductive health procedures, could be covered by medical insurance. However, the procedure must still be performed in a hospital as opposed to specialized clinics.
Jessi Taylor from Reproductive Justice New Brunswick said she and her organization are thankful to Gallant for this enormous first step, but only allowing abortions to be performed in hospitals is still another barrier to practical accessibility to the procedure.
“I’m very surprised that New Brunswick is ignoring best practices, which recognizes that clinics are the best places to access abortion services because it’s cheaper and more efficient not only for the patient but for the government,” said Taylor. “This has brought us to the ‘80s, but bringing us to the ‘80s is not the same as bringing us to 2014.”
Taylor also said until all tenets of Regulation 84-20 are removed, New Brunswick is still in violation of the Canada Health Act.
Tom Bateman, a political science professor at STU, doesn’t see how that could be true. The Canada Health Act says provinces must pay for procedures that are medically required, not “cosmetic procedures.”
“There’s a difference between a medical procedure done for a medical reason and a medical procedure done for non-medical reason,” said Bateman. “Just because it’s a medical procedure doesn’t mean it’s medically required.”
Peter Ryan, executive director of the New Brunswick Right to Life Association, said last week’s announcement was “not good news”. He said removal of restriction to abortion access is a set-back for the care of unborn babies, their mothers and their families.
“This means that abortion will be facilitated and the net result of that will be a likely great increase in provincial abortions,” said Ryan. “That’s a tragic thing. The province should really be reaching out to women in need and providing support and counselling and good resources, but instead it’s offering what appears to some as an easy way out.”
Cormier and Curtis said they haven’t quite accomplished what they set out to do when they started the petition back in March. They said we’re no longer moving backward, but changes still need to be made. They have a lot of questions on what this announcement means practically for the accessibility of abortion in New Brunswick, but the efforts of the pro-choice movement have at least gotten the province to bring the issue to the forefront.
“Getting people talking about it, getting people fired up about the fact that we’re moving backwards in terms of reproductive health…got the politicians gaining interest in the issue and putting it on their platforms,” said Cormier. “It’s amazing to see change happen when you’ve put so much effort into something.”
