About 100 people gathered on the lawn of the New Brunswick legislature to speak to the lack of equitable and affordable access to abortions in the province.
The rally came against a backdrop of thousands marching in other parts of Canada and the U.S. after the American Supreme Court there overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which upheld the constitutional right to an abortion.
For the organizers, it was also about showing how difficult it is even here in Canada, and New Brunswick.
“Living in New Brunswick, we know all too well the barriers to abortion access and 2SLGBGTQIA+ healthcare and we offer our (support), our rage and our voices to Americans being affected by these developments,” said organizer Jenna Lyn Albert.
In New Brunswick, surgical abortions cannot be performed out of hospital.
There are only three locations a person can obtain an abortion, at two hospitals in Moncton and one in Bathurst. It leaves many in the province without equitable access to the services, advocates have repeatedly said.
Dr. Adrian Edgar, who was the previous owner of Clinic 554, has been a tireless advocate for trans and queer healthcare but also abortions.
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Edgar took over the former Morgentaler clinic, which was facing its own struggles at the time, having no provincial funding. It was on the brink of closure when Edgar took it over.
New Brunswick rules are among the strictest around surgical abortions, Edgar said.
“New Brunswick is just so far behind the rest of Canada when it comes to gender and reproductive healthcare,” he said in an interview on Saturday. “But seeing what is happening in the States, it is waking up a number of people who aren’t quite aware of how desperate the situation is here.”
He still performs surgical abortions but they come at cost nearing $800.
“Our policy makers don’t care about what is best for us,” he said, speaking to the crowd. “They care about controlling us.”
Groups in the province, including the Civil Liberties Association, have asked the government of the day to repeal Regulation 84-20, the act that prohibits out-of-hospital abortions.
The current Progressive Conservative government has been unwilling to do so. The federal government has cutback health transfers to the province in response to it’s stance on abortions but has stopped short of forcing the government to comply with the Canada Health Act.
“These laws are intentional,” Edgar said. “The intention was to disenfranchise women from their bodily autonomy and that violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”
New Brunswick is the only jurisdiction in Canada that restricts out-of-hospital abortions.
But amid the signs that said “my body, my choice” and “keep your rosaries off my ovaries” was the anger and outrage many advocates felt.
“Why in the hell are we still doing this?” shouted Jennifer Stairs, the executive director of the New Brunswick New Democratic Party. “I don’t know what we have to do as New Brunswickers to say enough is enough but for f—ing sakes, enough is enough.”
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