Dr. Keith Fitzgerald, Medical officer of health in Scarborough Ontario, noted recently that school nurses – usually employed by the local boards of health – send any young pregnant student to a family planning clinic “where all the options are explained to her.”
Mature 13-15 year olds can get abortions without their parents’ knowledge or consent, according to Fitzgerald who acknowledged that such actions bypass the 1974 Ontario Public Hospitals Act which requires such consent for surgery on children under 16.
Fitzgerald claimed that nurses could justify their action because the Supreme Court is supposed to have said it would be “very sympathetic” to any patient claiming to make her own decisions after reaching the age of reason. This, he said makes it “common law.”
