NEW BRUNSWICK, CANADA – ‘History in the making,’ says New Brunswick abortion provider on repeal of a restrictive abortion regulation

Image: Signs from the Save Clinic 554 campaign

In front of an audience of abortion providers and advocates, New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt announced the end of a regulation that for decades had restricted access to abortions in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. Until this month, New Brunswick was unique in Canada for having a regulation that restricted procedural abortion services to hospital settings. It has taken almost 40 years for this to happen, Holt said.

Clinic 554’s manager, Valerya Edelman, was present for the announcement. “As manager of Clinic 554, I know that limiting access to medication abortions, long wait-times, and having to travel outside of one’s community created problems for many people,” she said. She explained that the repeal will mean patients will be permitted to use their Medicare card for procedural and medication abortions in clinics and collaborative health centres. “We’ve been fighting to remove barriers to abortion access for decades with incremental success. Axing this regulation was one of the hardest battles won and it was made possible by the perseverance of community members,” she added.

While the rest of Canada was decriminalizing abortion and enabling greater access to abortion services, following the landmark 1988 Supreme Court decision in R. v. Morgentaler, New Brunswick was figuring out how to continue restrictions on abortion access. New Brunswick Liberal Premier Frank McKenna made headlines when he told reporters he would give Dr Henry Morgentaler, a Holocaust survivor, the “fight of his life,” if he tried to open an abortion clinic in the province. While McKenna failed to stop Morgentaler from opening a clinic in Fredericton, he did make it extremely difficult for the clinic to operate.

Following the R. v. Morgentaler decision, McKenna announced the government was limiting abortions insured in the public system to those determined to be medically required by two physicians. The abortion also had to be performed by a gynaecologist or obstetrician in an approved hospital.

Before McKenna, the Progressive Conservative Richard Hatfield government had amended the province’s Medical Act in 1985 to prohibit abortions performed outside of registered hospitals. McKenna further restricted abortion access by amending the Medical Services Payment Act under Regulation 84-20 to exclude abortions as an entitled service for Medicare coverage.

While the Morgentaler Clinic operated in Fredericton between 1994 to 2014, it is estimated that thousands of patients paid out-of-pocket for abortions, while Morgentaler, with limited financial assistance from the National Abortion Federation, subsidized many abortions himself for those who could not afford to pay.

When Brian Gallant’s Liberals came to power in New Brunswick in 2014, the stage was set for the removal of barriers to abortion access. However, the Gallant government only removed the rule that forced those seeking an abortion to get the permission of two obstetrician-gynaecologists.

Despite calls from Reproductive Justice New Brunswick, the Fredericton Youth Feminists, labour unions and others to remove the restriction on Medicare coverage of abortions to hospital settings, the Gallant government refused.

The Morgentaler Clinic, and later Clinic 554 which was open from 2015, made it a practice never to turn away anyone in need of an abortion, but it meant constant financial turmoil for the clinic, ultimately leading to the end of procedural abortion services at Clinic 554 in early 2024.

“This is history in the making,” said Clinic 554’s Dr. Adrian Edgar about today’s announcement. “I’m thankful to the many people who refused to give up and accept an unacceptable status quo. I think it’s a true testament to the value of community perseverance,” said Edgar. He himself deserves a standing round of applause for staying the course all these years. It’s ironic and sad that he finally had to close Clinic 554 down earlier this year, and that the provincial government didn’t move faster to prevent that. Even so, he remains involved. He said: “Today, we celebrate and tomorrow we hope the Department of Health will earnestly work with us to recreate, and hopefully replicate in other regions, what we had at Clinic 554.”

The New Brunswick Abortion Care Provider Network joined in the celebration of the news too, but also wants further action. The Network called for a central self-referral process similar to Nova Scotia’s, that patients can use to “reach compassionate, informed nurses who will directly arrange all aspects of care”. The Network is also calling on New Brunswick to join British Columbia and Manitoba in providing free contraception. The Network also joined the Madhu Verma Migrant Justice Centre in demanding access to medication and procedural abortion services for people without Medicare, including temporary foreign workers and international students.

“Health care is a right, and that includes abortion care,” said Valerya Edelman, who was joined by a number of her social work students from St. Thomas University.

A group of people standing in a line

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Image: Valerya Edelman at the press conference

SOURCE: NB Media Coop, by Tracy Glynn, 7 November 2024. VISUAL by Carina Trasmundi. PHOTO by Tracy Glynn.