Morgentaler's out of Halifax

On Nov. 27, after 14 years, Henry Morgentaler unexpectedly closed his Halifax abortuary - and Ellen Chesal, a picketer and office secretary for Campaign Life Coalition Nova Scotia, was overjoyed.

"Our prayers have finally been answered. No more babies will die on McCully Street," she exulted.

Since October 1989, the abortuary was the scene of well over 4,000 abortions. At first, they were committed twice a week, then every Wednesday. More recently, they were committed every second Wednesday. In 1999, Morgentaler acknowledged the abortuary was not profitable, but suggested it provided a necessary alternative to the services available in hospitals.

About this time last year, staffing problems closed it for several weeks. Morgentaler suggested that it was because of the widespread shortage of nurses, the difficulty of keeping nurses in a "non-profit environment," and their difficulty in taking time off from their regular work, despite being "devoted to providing this service to women."

"Hopefully, this heinous position will be permanently vacant," said the CLC Nova Scotia newsletter in January 2003. But Morgentaler declared the abortuary would still provide "the best possible services ever," even if it meant bringing in nurses from New Brunswick, Montreal or Toronto.

Now, less than a year later, he says the women in Nova Scotia don't need it anymore. "That's because the Victoria General Hospital (part of the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre) now has a Morgentaler-trained doctor who uses the same technical procedure," his assistant, Shayna Hodgson, told CBC Radio from Toronto.

"Henry has all along only wanted the best available care for women. It is a medically necessary procedure. The fact that that level of care is now available at the local hospital, and it is covered, is definitely a victory for the women. Definitely," she claimed.

"How can this not restrict services? How can this not add to the waiting list?" asked Stephanie Hunter, co-ordinator of the Nova Scotia group Feminists for Justice and Equity in Public Policy. She maintained that the province needs more abortuaries, not fewer.

But Hodgson said the Victoria General can accommodate all the demand in Nova Scotia. (In the last couple of years, most abortion clients were from New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.)

P.E.I. hospitals do not provide abortions, though the government does pay for out-of-province, in-hospital abortions that a doctor deems medically necessary.

Health Minister Chester Gillan says Island women will now have to pay for abortions themselves, or travel to a Morgentaler abortuary in another province.

P.E.I. Right to Life hopes that this is the beginning of the end for Morgentaler abortuaries across Canada. "It would be great to see the (whole) Atlantic provinces as a 'life sanctuary.' We will continue to work and pray to that end," said its president, John Broderick.

They will also keep an eye open to see where the traffic moves, and whether the province sees an increase in government-funded abortions, especially since a spokesperson at the QE-II's Termination of Pregnancy Unit said they will "help any Island woman who wants an abortion to get that doctor referral." (He did not bother to say "needs an abortion.")

In Halifax, Chesal said, "We're free to move on, to focus our efforts at the Victoria General Hospital, where some 1,600 babies are lost annually through abortion."

Immediately after the Supreme Court of Canada struck down Canada's abortion law in January 1988, Nova Scotia passed a Medical Services Act banning the provision of abortions and certain other medical procedures in private clinics.

In defiance, Morgentaler performed 14 abortions before the province got an injunction to shut his abortuary down. He was charged, but later acquitted, on 14 counts of violating the law. In addition, the province lost its appeal. As he did elsewhere, Morgentaler filed a lawsuit against the provincial government, claiming refusal to cover the cost of abortions at his facility violated the Canada Health Act and the Constitution.

For 14 years, a small group of dedicated pro-life people picketed the abortuary in rain, snow, sleet and hail. Some never missed a day.

Among them was Herm Wills, who said, "I find it amazing that so many Christians who profess to be against abortion, including members of the cloth, could not find time to every now and again picket outside the abortion centre."

He added, "It was alarming, as a father, to see a medical doctor and workers at the clinic with child seats in their cars. It truly boggles the mind. Can they not see and feel and hear what they do?"

Shayna Hodgson was asked if Morgentaler would take credit for the availability of abortions in Nova Scotia today. She thought not.