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36 senators sign letter in support of Clinic 554
Clinic closure would 'impair access to hard won Charter-protected rights,' letter states
CBC News· Posted: Sep 30, 2020 4:01 PM AT
Thirty-six senators have signed a letter in support of Clinic 554 in Fredericton, the only location in New Brunswick that offers surgical abortions outside of hospitals.
The clinic, which also serves as a family practice and a resource centre for LGBTQ2 patients across the province, is expected to close Wednesday due to a lack of government funding.
"The closing of Clinic 554 would impair access to hard won Charter-protected rights," the letter released Tuesday night states.
In 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada granted women the right to choose to have an abortion, without fear of prosecution.
"Yet, access to the reproductive rights conferred to women years ago by the highest court in the Land are still being restricted by provincial regulations and policies," the senators' statement said.
Medicare currently covers only abortions performed at three hospitals in the province, two in Moncton and one in Bathurst.
"While we appreciate that the provision of services per se … is a provincial jurisdiction, the truth is that … the services offered by the clinic are different in nature because they have been prescribed constitutionally by the Supreme Court," said Sen. Judith Keating, one of the five New Brunswick senators who signed the letter.
"So they're not on the same level as other services, and so the obligation of the province is to ensure that proper access is provided."
Instead, the province has "consistently restricted the right to access by imposing some regulatory controls," said Keating, who has legal and constitutional expertise, having served more than 30 years in a variety of roles with the provincial government before her appointment to the Senate in January.
She was the first woman to serve as deputy minister of Justice and deputy attorney general of New Brunswick. She also served as chief legislative counsel and chief legal advisor to the premier.
Premier Blaine Higgs was unavailable for an interview Wednesday, said spokesperson Nicolle Carlin.
"He doesn't have anything more to say in response than what was said [Monday]," she said in an email.
On Monday, Higgs told reporters he's concerned that funding abortions in private clinics would set a precedent.
"So if we're going to suggest … that it's more cost-effective to offer services in a private clinic, then where does that stop? Does that mean that we should continue to offer more and more services in private clinics and less and less services in public institutions?"
Higgs said it's "a slippery slope. And if you do it for one service, where does it stop?"
Keating disagrees.
"It's not a slippery slope, in my view, because the services and the access to services that we're talking about stem from rights, from granted rights," she said.
"And so it is up to the province, and it's the responsibility of the province to pay for the service when it's required. And that's not what's happened. And that's not what has happened for the last 30 years."
The other New Brunswick senators who signed the letter of support include: René Cormier, Nancy Hartling, Sandra M. Lovelace Nicholas and Pierrette Ringuette.
"Senators should have their voices heard in situations where the curtailment of the exercise of the rights of citizens by any Canadian jurisdiction leads to a continual denial of those rights," the letter states.
"In a Constitutional Democracy such as ours, the substance and intent of Supreme Court decisions must be respected and applied."
The New Brunswick senators who did not sign are: Percy Mockler, Rose-May Poirier, David Richards and Carolyn Stewart Olsen.
Closing date unclear
It's unclear if Clinic 554 is closing Wednesday, as scheduled.
Dr. Adrian Edgar, who runs the clinic, could not immediately be reached for comment.
The clinic's administrator Valerie Edelman could not immediately be reached for comment either.
Edgar has applied to provide temporary visits for a small group of Clinic 554's "most vulnerable family practice patients, including those who require specialized care like abortion access, over the coming weeks to months," according to a post on the clinic's Facebook page on Sept. 23.
"If his application is approved, we will reach out to you," it states.
Last Friday, a group protesting the imminent closure of Clinic 554 had their tents removed from the grounds of the New Brunswick Legislature.
Speaker Daniel Guitard told CBC News on the weekend that he made the decision with the staff and advisory team after being told it was a longstanding practice not to permit tents on the property for security reasons.
I am being sarcastic of course. I understand logistics and population factors in providing health services.
We have many people in this province that need to travel for an hour just to see a family doctor. So travelling for surgeries is not unrealistic
New Brunswick is the only province in Canada that does not fund abortions outside of hospitals, while Clinic 554 is the only location that offers the medical procedure outside of a hospital in the province."
Why has Regulation 84-20 (from the early 1980s) not been repealed? It directly defies Health Care guidelines, by the way.
Source: https://globalnews.ca/news/7354039/waitlist-doctor-clinic-554/« less
I told you this out of the gate Correct?
Theo Trapper
Allow voices you don't agree with to speak. It doesn't matter what side of any argument is presented, there is absolutely nothing that is so sacred of a topic to ban speech.
David Amos
Content disabled
Reply to @Theo Trapper: I Wholeheartedly Agree Sir
"Reply to @David Amos: I think nobody dares because nobody cares about your personal failings, is that not so."
thats not very nice.......
Requiring 2 medical physicians to agree to the procedure was rescinded in 2015 by the Gallant government.
Nobody dares to deny the fact that Higgy et al have denied me the right to free health care for years and I have the emergency room bills and doctor fees to prove it.