Demonstrators at an abortion rights rally in Fredericton this weekend said the U.S. Supreme Court’s repeal of Roe v. Wade is linked to long-standing discussions about procedure access and funding in New Brunswick.
About 100 people attended Saturday’s rally in front of the New Brunswick Legislature for an issue that has provoked decades of protests on the property.
“I brought a bunch of signs that we used for a rally here in 2015,” said Dr. Adrian Edgar, the medical director at Clinic 554, a private clinic in downtown Fredericton which performs surgical abortions.
“I think the states are catching up to New Brunswick, or unfortunately they’re regressing to where we’ve always been.”
“New Brunswick has already de facto enforced a lot of the things the states are asking for,” he said.
“We already have gestational limits, so there’s already a ban on the number of weeks that a person can be pregnant in New Brunswick and have an abortion. By having hospital policies which limit which hospitals provide abortions, we’re also not providing care in a way that’s reasonable.”
Publicly funded abortions inside New Brunswick’s three designated hospitals are performed up to 13 weeks and six days of pregnancy. Surgical abortions beyond a gestational period of 16 weeks aren’t generally performed in New Brunswick but are elsewhere in Canada.
The New Brunswick government doesn’t allow publically funded surgical abortions to be performed beyond two hospitals in Moncton and one in Bathurst.
Surgical abortions performed at Fredericton’s private Clinic 554 — a former Dr. Henry Morgentaler clinic — cost between $700 and $850. The clinic was sold this spring, but procedures continue to be performed.
Jenna Lyn Albert, the coordinator of Saturday’s rally, said procedures at Clinic 554 were paid for out-of-pocket from patients or through a fund of donations.
“We need to see action and support beyond Clinic 554 because there are other major cities and rural communities where abortions are not accessible,” said Albert.
Several signs at Saturday’s rally demanded the New Brunswick government repeal Regulation 84-20, which bans surgical abortions funded by Medicare outside of a hospital setting.
Premier Blaine Higgs has consistently argued the province is fulfilling abortion access and funding obligations under the Canada Health Act.
The issue of abortion funding and access in New Brunswick has been highlighted in the past two federal elections, with the federal Liberals withholding $140,000 in health transfer payments to the province citing its refusal to provide funding at Clinic 554.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Canadian-based Campaign Life Coalition said in a statement that it’s “only a matter of time before life will be winning in Canada too.”
Saturday’s rally also linked provincial abortion services to New Brunswick’s overall state of healthcare provided to 2SLGBTQ+ communities.
“It’s a very directed policy at disenfranchising women and gender minorities,” said Edgar.
Demonstrators rallied across North America this weekend for abortion rights, including at the White House in Washington, D.C.
