When staff at the Morgentaler Clinic in Fredericton held a press conference on April 10, 2014 to announce that the clinic was closing due to financial trouble at the end of July after 20 years of providing abortion services, it sent shock waves throughout New Brunswick, PEI, and Nova Scotia.

 

Most clinic patients were not aware of Dr. Morgentaler’s endless struggle and constant legal battles to force the New Brunswick Government to obey the law and fund abortions at his clinic.

 

If the New Brunswick government provided funding for clinic abortions - like every other province - the clinic would still be open.

 

From the moment Dr. Morgentaler announced his intentions to open an abortion clinic in Fredericton, the provincial government mobilized its plans to thwart his efforts. The main obstacle government created for New Brunswick women who needed to access abortions was - and still is - Regulation 84-20, which essentially prevented abortions provided at the Morgentaler Clinic from being funded by Medicare.

 

Dr. Morgentaler was immune to their threats. He had already survived jail, hate mail, threats against his life and the bombing of his Toronto Clinic. The actions of the NB government only served to strengthen his resolve to ensure that New Brunswick women would have access to safe abortion care in his clinic and that no woman would be turned away regardless of her ability to pay.

 

Many women who needed to access abortions at the clinic could not pay. The National Abortion Federation provided limited financial support, but most financial support came directly from the clinic. Had the province provided funding for clinic abortions - or at least paid for abortions for women without the ability to pay - the clinic would not have closed.

 

How the Government Drove the Clinic Into Financial Ruin

 

• Many women were completely or partially unable to pay for their abortions. As a result, the clinic’s revenue never met expenses and over the years, shortfalls were made up by Dr. Morgentaler himself. In the last 10 years of its existence, the clinic lost over $105,400 by subsidizing abortions for women unable to pay the full amount.

• A flood in 2008 caused damage totalling more than $100,000. Many downtown businesses received some compensation but the clinic was denied on the basis it was not owned by a resident of New Brunswick. Had Dr. Morgentaler not paid for the required repairs to keep the clinic open, it would have closed in 2008.

• The clinic could not continue to provide abortion services that are not publically funded.

 

The amount of financial assistance provided by the clinic speaks eloquently to the impact Regulation 84-20 has had on women living on assistance, single family mothers in minimum wage jobs, students with no income, and women living in abusive relationships. The closure also affects women from PEI, the only province with no abortion services. Of the 600-700 women who visited the Morgentaler Clinic annually, approximately 10% came from PEI.

 

The Morgentaler Clinic opened in June 1994, and until July 2014, it provided abortion services to more than 10,000 women in a compassionate and professional environment.

 

After 20 years, the Fredericton Morgentaler Clinic has had to close its doors. Regulation 84-20 remains on the books [repealed Jan 1, 2015!] and New Brunswick women will have no option to access abortions in the Province except by meeting its discriminatory and medically unjustifiable requirements.