The number of hospitals in Canada that perform abortions is falling, according to a study by a national pro-abortion
group called Canadians for Choice (CFC).
As the Ottawa Citizen reported, the study found that only 15.9 per cent of general hospitals – or about one in six –
offered abortion services in 2006, down from 17.8 per cent in 2003. And most of those lay within 150 kilometres of
the U.S. border.
As a result, the study claims, women living in the more northerly parts of the country are forced to endure limited
options and hardships when seeking abortions.
In Ontario, for example, only 33 out of 94 hospitals performed abortions in 2006 – and of these, only one hospital
was located north of the Trans-Canada Highway.
CFC executive director Patricia LaRue said this means many women have to drive up to 14 hours to obtain an
abortion. “The travel is really demanding on these women’s lives,” she told the Citizen. “Many have to hire a
babysitter, pay for a bus or take time off work.”
LaRue attributed the decline in abortion accessibility in part to a lack of trained abortionists, noting that Canada’s
medical schools are not required to teach physicians how to perform abortions.
The study also revealed, according to LaRue, that “Many hospital workers were either judgmental or very
misinformed” when asked about what their facility offered by way of abortion services.
But while abortions may be becoming less accessible, that does not appear to have had any significant impact on
the number of abortions performed in Canada.
According to Statistics Canada, in 2003 – the most recent figures available – 103,768 abortions were performed,
down from 105,154 in 2002 – a decline of just one per cent.
In fact, the true number of babies aborted could well be much higher. As LifesiteNews.com recently noted,
“Accurate statistics are now hard to come by, many surgical abortions are likely not recorded as such and chemical
abortions are not tallied in the statistics.”
The 22 clinics across Canada that perform abortions were not included in the study.
