Newfoundland Health Minister Steve Kent says he will expand abortion services if women or doctors ask for it.
There are about 1,000 surgical abortions committed in Newfoundland and Labrador each year, all them carried out in two facilities in the capital, St. John’s. Health and Community Services Minister Steve Kent said he would expand abortion in the province if there was a request to do so.
According to the CBC, one quarter of those abortions were carried out on women from outside the Eastern Health region, and women from other parts of the province can have their travel costs covered by the Medical Transportation Assistance Program. That is on top of the abortion being covered under the Newfoundland and Labrador Medicare Care Plan.
Information obtained by the CBC shows that the Health Sciences Centre, a public hospital in the provincial capital, did 213 abortions in 2013, compared to 820 done at the former Morgentaler Clinic, now called the Athena Health Centre, a private abortion mill.
The CBC report says that abortion rights advocates, who they never identify, complain that traveling to St. John’s is a “barrier” to abortion.
“If a physician in another health region wished to offer therapeutic abortion services,” Kent told the state broadcaster, “we would encourage them to contact the Department of Health and Community Services through their regional health authority, and we could certainly look at that request.”
Kent added, “there are no immediate plans to do so,” because “there haven’t been requests,” from either citizens or physicians.
Margaret Hynes, president of Campaign Life Coalition Newfoundland, said that the CBC is covering a non-story. “If they are not coming, then they must not want abortions,” she told LifeSiteNews.
Kent said that people may prefer to travel to St. John’s from other parts of the province to keep their abortion secret
