Ottawa Poised to Take Action on NB Abortion Policy    

  From Bobby-Jean McKinnon, “Federal Health Minister Says Ottawa Will Wait Till After N.B. Vote to Address Access to Abortions,” Telegraph-Journal August 22, 2006. Reprinted with permission.

CHARLOTTETOWN - New Brunswickers will have to wait a while longer to find out what, if anything, the federal government plans to do to improve access to abortions in the province, says the federal health minister.
    Tony Clement blamed the provincial election for the "additional hangup.
"We'll have to wait for the conclusion of that and see whether we've got the current government or a new government and see where we're at," he told reporters Monday during the Canadian Medical Association's annual general meeting in Charlottetown, P.E.I.
    Asked whether the federal government plans to restart the dispute-avoidance resolution process, started by the former Liberal government over New Brunswick's restrictive abortion policies, Clement said, "The process is still a process and we're not starting a new process, but it hasn't come to any conclusion."
     He rejected describing the process as "stalled."I wouldn't characterize it that way "... it's continuing," he said. "Certainly we're committed to a resolution of this process."
    New Brunswick has come under fire in recent months after the Fredericton-based Region 3 health authority announced plans to stop making the procedure available by the end of June.
    The Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital in Fredericton was the last New Brunswick hospital regularly performing abortions. It performed 400 of the 404 abortions covered by Medicare in 2005-06.      
    The regional health authority cited "manpower issues" for its decision to cancel the service. That would have left the private Morgentaler Clinic in Fredericton as the only place in the province providing abortions. And the province refuses to pay for abortions performed there.
     But Health Minister Brad Green assured access to publicly funded "medically necessary termination of pregnancy procedures" in New Brunswick would be improved.
     He found two gynecologists in two different cities willing to perform the procedure, but has declined to reveal the location, citing safety concerns for the doctors and patients.
     The rules under which a woman can receive a publicly funded abortion haven't changed, though. For a woman to receive an abortion in a public hospital, she must be less than 12 weeks pregnant and have two doctors deem the procedure medically necessary.
     New Brunswick is one of the few jurisdictions in Canada that refuses to extend Medicare coverage for private clinics. Women who use the private clinic don't need a referral, but have to pay between $500 and $750.
     Leading abortion advocates in North America contend New Brunswick's access to abortions is unacceptable and have taken to comparing the province to South Dakota, the American state where abortions have been banned.
       Dr. Henry Morgentaler wrote Clement last May, urging the federal government to intervene to ensure N.B. women have access to universal health services.
   He contends the policy violates the 1998 Supreme Court ruling that struck down Canada's abortion law, which allowed abortions only when a woman's life or health was in danger. New Brunswick and Ottawa were headed toward a showdown over the province's refusal to fund private-clinic abortions before the last federal election.
   Ottawa launched the dispute-avoidance resolution process to settle the matter, but the process was stalled during the January campaign.
   A spokeswoman at Health Canada, Carole Sandoin, has been quoted as saying Ottawa was reviewing whether it would proceed with the process spearheaded by former Liberal health minister Ujjal Dosanjh.

Editor’s Note: The reported 12-week cutoff for NB abortions is erroneous. No limit exists for Medicare-funded abortions.