Abortion Rights in NB: I'm tired of being angry. Heather Mallick joins the club.

I have written more entries on women's health in NB than any other topic. And nothing is changing in that area. Now Heather Mallick has written an article for CBC about our emergency situation, and hopefully will draw much needed national attention to the issue (see below).

To date, I have sent letters to Brad Green (when he was minster of health), Bernard Lord (when he was premier), Michael Murphy (current min of health), Shawn Graham (current premier), and Tony Clement (Fed Minister of Health) on this issue. I have received one reply, from Minister Clement.

This is what he had to say, in response to my plea for him to FORCE New Brunswick to uphold the Canada Health Act, as is his duty:

"As Minister of Health, I have the mandate to ensure that the principles of the Canada Health Act are upheld. [Yes, Tony, this is why I'm writing to you] Under the Act, the provincial and territorial health insurance plans are required to provide coverage to their residents for all medically necessary hospital and physician services. Abortion services have been determined to be medically necessary by the provincial and territorial health insurance plans, in consultation with their respective physician colleges or groups, and are insured by every province and territory in Canada. [Thanks for the review. Let's get to work then!]

You may be aware that a court action has been launched against the province of New Brunswick seeking to have declared unconstitutional an amendment to the provincial Medical Services Payment Act to exclude public funding for abortions performed outside an approved hospital facility. [Yessir, very aware. It's not going very well]. The Government of Canada is not involved in this court case. [I am asking you to be]. Prime Minister Harper has made it clear that the Government will not initiate or support any legislation to regulate abortion." That's the whole letter.

Did your jaw just drop? Clement (or an aid) seems to have taken a policy statement about abortion in NB, then slapped on ONE SENTENCE in which he washes his hands of the whole affair. Fully admitting, in the one sentence, that Harper has a policy to be willfully in contravention of the Canada Health Act, and that he himself is not going to lift a finger for anyone on this issue. [Letter was received dec 16, 2006]

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Abortion rights and abortion fights
Heather Mallick
April 20, 2007

Canada's abortion battle legally ended in 1988 when the Supreme Court ruled that women had dominion over their own bodies. Abortion became a woman's choice.

But ever since, the provincial anti-abortionists have continued their mean, small-time work by targeting working-class women. Thus, the problem for Canadian women is not abortion rights, it is access to abortion. And New Brunswick has become a tragedy in this respect.

Fredericton is an attractive capital city of just over 50,000 on the shores of the St. John River. The well-kept, beautifully painted big clapboard houses along the shore with their wraparound decks and intricate woodwork make the place seem healthy, wealthy and immensely appealing. The University of New Brunswick has a campus here and the presence of so many young people gives the city its energy.

But in 1989, the New Brunswick government, furious that women couldn't be denied abortions, made sure that women could not get timely access to publicly funded abortions and that poverty-stricken women couldn't get abortions at all. They set up regulations (thus bypassing the legislature and voters) saying hospital abortions had to be performed by a gynecologist, although the procedure is easily performed by a non-specialist. The abortion had to be approved by the gynecologist and one other doctor. Abortions in clinics would not be covered by Canadian health care (this is illegal).

Since almost no New Brunswick hospitals perform abortions anyway, women must discover their pregnancy very early, find a local doctor who'll refer them (difficult), and travel to a city to find another doctor to sign for them (expensive), and then book the operation (sometimes cancelled and impossible to rebook).

She must then go to the Morgentaler Clinic and pay for her abortion. Anti-abortionists bought the house next to the Fredericton clinic, where they try to lure women to change their minds, terrifying them with misleading photographs and false information.

When she escapes these people, she will get her abortion and then make her way home, often shamed and traumatized for what is a perfectly simple procedure elsewhere in Canada (except in P.E.I., where abortions are unavailable).

The obstacle course
Fredericton citizens often see Liberal Premier Shawn Graham around town. He is 38, but he looks 16. This is the man who has followed his predecessors in maintaining the obstacle course for pregnant women. Note that because these abortion rules are minor regulations passed by cabinet, they aren't approved by the legislature. Voters have no say. This is just a little act of cruelty by a cabal, and it could end next week if New Brunswickers made enough of a fuss.

They are starting to. This month, I spoke at a gathering sponsored by the Faculty of Law at the University of New Brunswick, Law Students for Choice, the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada and other groups. Law school dean Philip Bryden, a distinguished lawyer, moderated a panel where a nurse, a law professor and a physician all spoke passionately about the mistreatment of women seeking abortions.

I had expected 25 students to show up. Instead there were 290 people, not all of them students, and they overflowed into other rooms as the discussion went on. It was wonderful to hear Prof. Marilyn Merritt-Gray from the Faculty of Nursing, because medical matters are usually left to god-like doctors, not mere nurses. It was illuminating to hear law professor Jula Hughes remark how often one hears the word "shame" in anti-abortion circles. Women are shamed for their fertility, for their sexuality. It hadn't struck me before. I wonder how many girls and women internalize this "shame" that can turn to self-loathing.

A Frederictonian in the audience, who introduced himself to me later as Eric Wright, stood and addressed himself to anti-choice males: "If you guys are so opposed to abortions, don't have one."

I had to laugh. It really is that simple. It's not your business.

Morgentaler steps forward
The Morgentaler Clinic has sued the provincial government, and its court case will begin May 16. At the moment, the young premier's lawyers are arguing that since Henry Morgentaler is not a woman, he should have no standing in the case. It's difficult to find a local woman willing to go to court, so Dr. Morgentaler, 84-year-old former prisoner of both the Nazis and the Canadian government, has stepped forward once again.

The problem has spread across Canada. Since 2003, the percentage of hospitals offering abortions has decreased from 17.8 per cent to 15.9 per cent. That means you only have the opportunity to obtain an abortion at one in every six hospitals.

Read the rest, but avoid the comment section (too painful).