A group of St. Thomas social work students are working to make abortions more accessible in New Brunswick.
Kathleen Curtis, Vanessa Cormier, Marina Opacic and Allison Mee are taking a class focused on social action. Their task was to start a conversation that inspired social action about a topic they care about.
“We all decided that we felt strongly about this [abortion funding] legislation that’s clearly not being followed in New Brunswick,” said Cormier.
In 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down an anti-abortion law, marking it as unconstitutional. Since then, abortions are considered a medical expense through provincial health care.
To get an abortion funded in New Brunswick, a woman has to get two doctors notes citing that it is medically required. For abortions that are not medically required, a woman would have to go to the Morgentaler Clinic in downtown Fredericton and pay from $700-$850 to get the procedure done.
The group wants abortions to be more accessible to women in New Brunswick.
They started an online petition that calls on the government to provide funding for the clinic and has gotten over 2,000 signatures in the first week. Cormier said that response is fantastic and no one in the group was expecting it.
There has been some negative feedback, though. Curtis said they’ve been getting social media threats from people who are anti-abortion.
“But we have received a lot of positive feedback,” said Curtis. “I, personally, have received messages from people saying, ‘I was in an abusive relationship and had to scrounge from numerous people trying to get the funds [for an abortion]’ or ‘I was raped.’”
Peter Ryan is the manager of the New Brunswick Right to Life Association. He said abortion is an act of violence and he’s disappointed that the social work students would start a campaign like this.
“It’s tragic that they, as potential social workers, would feel no empathy for some 10,000 New Brunswick children who have lost their lives at the Morgentaler facility,” said Ryan in an email.
Ryan said this petition supports the view of people who are pro-choice, which supports the idea that abortion does not kill a baby.
“Factually, medically, scientifically, a baby dies. To deny that is pure ideology, a bad basis for government policy.”
Ryan said what the province has in place is rational because these abortions are based on choice, not medical necessity, so the government should not feel required to fund them.
“If your ideology is that it’s a woman’s right to kill her pre-born child on demand, which is what goes on at a private clinic, it’s completely bogus to convert that into the idea every abortion is automatically a medical necessity,” said Ryan.
“New Brunswick’s policy is on sound legal ground. What other provinces do is their business. We don’t have to be copy-catters.”
The group of social work students say negative response will not be stopping them.
“The support has really been something that has trumped the negative,” said Curtis.
“Regardless of the negative feedback we’ve gotten, it’s not going to stop our final goal,” said Cormier.
Manager of the Morgentaler clinic, Simone Leibovitch, said she didn’t know about the petition was in process before it became public. She said this gives new life to an old debate that she feels jaded about.
“I think it’s good that people are talking about it. It’s nice to see that young women are interested in it and sometimes, working here, you forget that people are interested,” said Leibovitch.
“The problem is that people think this issue isn’t going to go anywhere. And the people who’ve been working on the issue for a long time here are tired. There’s been a lot of money and time spent on trying to get the province to change their mind and that hasn’t worked.”
If the group gets to their goal of 10,000 signatures, they will present the petition to the New Brunswick legislature.
“We’re doing this for the women of New Brunswick,” said Curtis. “We’re doing this for the victims of sexual assault who have to go to the Morgentaler clinic.”
