Pro-Abortion: Canadian abortion providers set to receive patients from US

*Health professionals suggest nobody will be turned away in Canada, as several Canadians are ‘looking to offer other types of support’ to patients

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

Following the recent repeal the age-long pro-abortion law in several states in the United States (US), medical centres that perform abortions, in Canada, are preparing to receive patients from states that ban the procedure in the US.

Recall the US Supreme Court ruling overturning a constitutional right to abortion in America is also being used as motivator to expand Canada’s abortion services and provide other forms of support to pregnant women.

Canada’s Supreme Court decriminalised abortion in 1988, 15 years after America’s landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling that legalised abortion across the US, according to report.

Demonstrators protest against outlawing abortion May 2022, outside of the US Supreme Court in Washington   Photo: The Associated Press

Canada is regarded as the world’s second-largest land mass, and abortion services are not easily accessible for hundreds of kilometers in some rural areas, report stated.

ConsumerConnect reports abortion in Canada is legal at all stages of pregnancy, regardless of the reason, and is publicly funded as a medical procedure under the combined effects of the Federal Canada Health Act and provincial health-care systems. Nevertheless, access to services and resources varies by region.

It was also learnt that most major urban areas have hospitals or medical centers where they are available.

Now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, the 13 US states along the border with Canada are free to allow abortions, restrict them or ban them entirely.

Winnipeg is the capital of Manitoba, which borders North Dakota, a state that is also expected to restrict access to abortion in the United States.

Meanwhile, Blandine Tona, Director of Clinical Programmes at the Women’s Health Clinic, in Winnipeg, noted the health facility expects to see American patients visit the centre, as some did before the outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The medical professional  said this has had less to do with laws and more to do with proximity; some Americans are closer to Winnipeg than to states where abortion is still legal in the US.

In welcoming such patients to Canada, Paynter, who has a doctorate in Nursing, said there are costs and logistical obstacles for Americans to obtain care in the North American country.

However, she said, the situation is a motivator to expand access to abortions across Canada.

Shae also stated: “It seems unlikely because you’d have to pay for the travel, you’d have to have a passport — it would be quite a process.

“I nevertheless think that we should prepare. This is a very good reminder of how we need to be ever vigilant and expanding access.”

Canada’s westernmost province of British Columbia shares a stretch of border with Washington state, where abortion services will continue to be widely available, but also Idaho, where a state law will soon ban the procedure if it survives court challenges.

Michelle Fortin, Executive Director of Options for Sexual Health, formerly Planned Parenthood Association of British Columbia, said possible immigration issues, such as requiring passports and having to cross an international border lead most Americans who seek abortion services to visit the nearest US state that allows it.

Even so, she said, nobody will be turned away in Canada, and many Canadians are looking to offer other types of support as well.

“So I believe that any American that shows up who’s got a pregnancy that is unintended and unwanted would be served.

“I don’t know that we’re going to see huge influx.

“I do know that there’s a lot of folks in Canada looking for ways in which we can support people in America to access abortion, she said.

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