Much ink is being spilled in the provincial and national press about fewer abortions in Alberta. Headline seekers such as Henry Morgentaler have come to town (Calgary), officiously offering “help” to resolve the problem.
Actually, there is no problem. Alberta Health Minister Mary Moore is merely enforcing the prohibition against extra-billing, refusing to allow exceptions for abortionists. He is doing what his Ontario counterpart, Murray Elson, refuses to do.
Because of the Health Minister’s decision not to make exceptions for abortionists, Calgary’s Foothill Hospital, the major centre for abortions in Alberta, almost ceased to do abortions since the banning of extra-billing as of October 1, 1986. Doctors decided the $84.50 that Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan provides was not enough. In Edmonton, eight of 11 obstetricians doing abortions stopped.
But extra-billing is not the only issue. There had been growing opposition within the medical profession against repeat abortions and abortions of convenience. In mid-November both the current president of the Alberta Medical Association and the incoming one, decided the time had come to face at least part of the truth. They declared that the Alberta government should stop covering abortions. According to Alberta Report (Dec. 8), they complained that most “therapeutic” abortions are not legitimate medical procedures at all. Rather, they said, they have become mainly a taxpayer-subsidized form of belated contraception.
Pro-life groups were not happy with the doctors’ recommendation for a special clinic in Edmonton for non-medical or “elective” abortions, nor with the idea of abolishing Hospital Committees. As has been known for a long time, practically all abortions in Canada are done for reasons of convenience, whether social or economic.
Health Minister Moore still believes that abortion is an essential service and unlikely to be de-insured. Meanwhile, this ban infuriated the staunchly pro-abortion Edmonton Journal which spoke of a “miserable failure to act.” Also upset at the minister’s refusal to exempt abortionists from the ban was NDP leader Ray Martin who spoke of “women held to ransom.” Martin commended the Alberta Status of Women Action Committee for trying to set up transportation to help pregnant women travel to the USA for abortions.
Meanwhile, newspapers in Central Canada wept crocodile tears. Syndicated columnist Leonard Shifrin claimed that “women were being held hostage in a power struggle.” (“Alberta situation fuels pro-choice advocates” Toronto Star, November 17.) June Callwood, honorary director of CARAL, headed her Globe column: “Abortion ‘option’ lets MD’s play roulette with women’s lives.” (December 3) and the Toronto Star ran a three quarter page article headed: “Women victims, as Alberta MDs fight billing ban” (December 11, 1986).
One point is clear: the unhappiness of the Alberta abortion doctors and their refusal to carry on shows how much the issue concerns money and how little it has to do with “necessary medical services.”
