RALLY FOR CHOICE TODAY!!!

JUSTICE BUILDING
WEDNESDAY, MAY 16TH
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM

The provincial government refuses to provide adequate access to funded abortion. Dr. Morgentaler is suing the provincial government in an attempt to expand access.

On May 16th the government is bringing a motion to try to stop the law suit. Come and tell the government to stop using out money to attack our rights!

The provincial government continues to claim that it provides adequate access, but the facts show that access was cut sharply last June when the hospital in Fredericton stopped offering abortion service. There are more women than ever seeking abortions at the Morgentaler Clinic.

The government has repeatedly stated that it will not change its policy without public outcry. Government officials have started to sit up and take notice since the April 11th event in Fredericton where almost 300 people spoke out for choice. We need to keep the pressure up.

COME TO THE JUSTICE BUILDING ON MAY 16TH TO VOICE YOUR SUPPORT FOR ACCESS TO SAFE AND PUBLICALLY FUNDED ABORTION!

WE ARE NEW BRUNSWICK! WE ARE FOR CHOICE!

ORGANIZED BY: Abortion Access (NB) with support from: The Morgentaler Clinic, Fredericton Sexual Assault Crisis Centre, Law Students for Choice, Abortion Right Coalition of Canada, National Abortion Federation.

Fighting For Our Right To Choose.

Please read this post, and then, if you agree even the slightest bit with what we're trying to do, please send a letter (there is an example at the bottom, that you can use if you like). It doesn't matter where you're from: What the government of New Brunswick is doing will have an affect on everyone, and if they are allowed to take away our right to choose, what's next?

I would also ask that if you do send a letter, you ensure that your name is legible and that you include where you're from (just the city, and if you're from outside NB, the province or state.) Thank-you all in advance for your support of this action.

Action Alert! Right to Choose Under Attack in New Brunswick

Once again our right to choose has come under direct attack in New Brunswick. As of July 1st, 2006, the Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton is no longer performing publicly funded abortions. Financial reasons were cited for terminating this service; because the hospital is short-staffed. The Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital was the last publicly funded institution to provide abortion services for the entire province of New Brunswick. Our provincial government has been quick to promise us that abortion services will be performed in at least one other publicly funded institution in the province, but they will not release the names of the doctors who have volunteered to fill this gap in our health care services, nor the location where this service will be provided.

Concerned New Brunswickers are spearheading a campaign to let the Government of New Brunswick know that denying a woman’s right to choose and consequently endangering her reproductive health is unacceptable, and to demand that the government immediately begin a publicly funded program to provide abortion services in all hospitals across the province. We would like to begin by organizing a campaign, with the goal of having at least 400 letters sent to our provincial Health Minister, Brad Green, who approved the cancellation of abortion services at the Fredericton Dr.Everett Chalmers Hospital. We are suggesting that each letter contain a coat hanger to remind our public health representative of one of the most disturbing dangers of restricting a woman’s right to choose: self-induced abortion.

We would like these letters to clearly express the danger of the current situation, as well as suggest positive improvements that our government can make to bring us closer to having access to adequate public health care. We encourage the inclusion of statistics from reliable sources,personal statements of the dangers of not providing abortion services, and the changes that you deem to be most urgent. This campaign will continue for an entire month, ending with a Pro-Choice Rally in Fredericton, NB, on the 19th of August. Please find listed below the various addresses of the Honourable Brad Green’s offices, to which you should address your letters. We have also provided some suggestions of demands you may wish to include in your letters to Mr. Green, as well as a form letter and several online resources which you should feel free to use.

Recommended improvements to our public system:

* A return to publicly funded abortions at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton.
* Provision of provincial funding for all abortions.
* Inclusion of all public health facilities in New Brunswick to perform abortions, so that families who cannot afford to travel will have equal access.
* Elimination of the necessity of having two doctors confirm that an abortion is “medically necessary” before the procedure will be funded by the province. This is the only medical procedure that needs two equally qualified medical professionals to approve, and its sole purpose seems to be the limiting of access.
* Removal of politically motivated categorization of abortions such as “medically necessary”, and “therapeutic”.
* Improved education and access to birth control options.
* Improved education and access to the morning after pill.
* Comprehensive sexual education program in schools.
* Sexual education programs in schools starting earlier in the school curriculum.

Mailing Addresses:

Brad Green, QC
Minister of Health
Attorney General
MLA Fredericton South

1. Constituency Office: Fredericton South
83 Regent Street
Fredericton NB E3B 3W3

2. Carleton Place
P.O. Box 5100
Fredericton NB E3B 5G8

3. Carleton Place
520 King Street
Fredericton NB E3B 6G3

4. Fax: (506) 453-5243

5. E-Mail Address: brad.green@gnb.ca

If you choose to write an e-mail, please CC, or BCC all correspondence to accesstooptions@gmail.com


For more information, please have a look at the following links:

1. Lack of abortion access may violate health act: analyst
http://www.cbc.ca/nb/story/nb

2. Backgrounder - Abortion Access Issues
http://www.arcc-cdac.ca/backgrounders/access.htm

3. Five Basic Principles Not Met
http://www.prochoiceactionnetwork-canada.org/articles/healthact.shtml

4. Women To Be Denied Funded Abortions in New Brunswick
http://www.womennet.ca/news.php?show&4366

Example Letter

Date

Dear Hon. Brad Green,

I am writing to express my great dismay over the New Brunswick government's recent decision to terminate publicly funded abortions at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton. The government's proposal to further erode an already inaccessible abortion service system in this province is an irresponsible move in the wrong direction that needs to be reversed.

Given that 400 of the 404 publicly funded abortions performed in New Brunswick last year were done at the Chalmers Hospital and that there has yet to be an announcement by the government of where women can go to obtain a publicly funded abortion, the government is infringing on the rights of women to choose, and seriously jeopardizing public health.

Historically, women in our area, like elsewhere in the world, have tried to end unintended pregnancies when abortion services were inaccessible. Sadly, healthcare professionals in this province are still witnessing the effects of self-induced abortions and dangerous illegal procedures caused by a system that does not provide access for women to obtain a publicly funded and accessible abortion. This tragic scenario is only expected to continue and worsen with the further backward measures to make abortion services even more inaccessible.

I call on your government to return publicly funded abortion services to the Chalmers Hospital as well as enhanced publicly funded abortion services throughout the province so that women seeking abortions throughout the province have access to this necessary health service. The fact that the only abortion providers in this province are located in urban centres means that many women seeking abortions must travel varying distances from their homes and some do not have the means to do so. Also, many women who need abortions simply cannot afford them. For this reason, it is important that publicly funded abortion services be extended throughout the province.

Finally, New Brunswick is the only province in Canada that refuses to pay for abortions performed in private clinics. I call on the government to stop violating the Canada Health Act and make abortion services more accessible by paying for these clinical abortions.

Sincerely,

(Your Name)

First they go after the right to choose... what's next? A woman's right to vote?

Ok... so what are they trying to do in South Dakota? Roll us all the way back to the stone age, slowly but surely? I'm sure most of you have heard the scary news of the newly anointed abortion law that was recently passed there, but due to my shock and horror, I've decided to present the details here:

I had heard rumblings for some time that a major anti-abortion bill was in the works, and on Friday, February 24, 2006 (a dark day for women everywhere- whether you're anti- or pro-choice), the South Dakota State Legislature passed a law (which apparently the Governor is disinclined to veto...) which outlaws all abortion, even in cases of rape and incest UNLESS the life of the woman is in direct medical jeopardy (ie- threats of suicide ain't gonna sway the government of South Dakota.) On top of this, doctors who flout this new law could be sentenced to up to five years in prison for performing an abortion.

This law, once it is signed, will be a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, which, most of you will know, was the 1973 US Supreme Court ruling that struck down anti-abortion laws in the US. Thus, it will be challenged in court. Good.

The problem here is that the law has been crafted in such a way as to allow it to stay in place whilst said challenge is underway... dammit. What's more, and this is really, truly scary for women of the US, when this case does make it to the Supreme Court, what if the now-higher-content-Republican Court (given Bush's TWO appointments) finds in favour of South Dakota? Wow, that's a dangerous precedent to set. I'm not even sure of the mechanics of how or if that could happen, but I'm sure the possibility is there.

Perhaps this was the purpose all along... find one of the most socially conservative states in the country (with a low abortion rate taboot- ~800 per year are performed and there is only ONE legal abortion clinic in the whole damn state), get the Legislature to pass a massive anti-abortion law (knowing full well that it will be challenged under Roe v. Wade), and then let the judicial system do its work in the hopes that the courts will find in favour of the anti-choice lobby and the State of South Dakota...

True-this does not have a direct affect on those of us that don't live in the US, but (I say again) it does set a dangerous precedent. Canadians can take comfort in the fact that an anti-abortion law here would have to get through the Canada Health Act as well as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms before it could be enacted... and that's not a very likely scenario right now, given the composition of our government and the Supreme Court. Thank goodness.

That said, the very existence of the South Dakota law sends shivers up my spine. Some women just cannot afford to have a baby, whether financially or socially (and unfortunately, this is a responsibility that is ultimately borne by women). Why should a woman be forced to carry to term and give birth to a child that she knows, from day one, she can't support? Never mind the intense social stigma of being a single or unwed mother- you know it's still there. And don't even try to quote the birth control argument to me- accidents DO happen, and what if you can't afford birth control? Should you just never have sex? Right.

Don't they know that no matter what the state says, women are still gonna have abortions??? They always have... but when it's not state sanctioned, women are forced to get creative, and that's when abortions become truly dangerous. Conjure images of bent clothes-hangers, dirty knives, lye (LYE!!), and women throwing themselves down stairs in an effort to self-abort.

*shudder*

See a very informative post here for more information on this, and also, for fiction-based-on-fact tales of pre-legal abortion situations, The Cider House Rules by John Irving (the book, not the movie), and the movie Vera Drake are good representations of what I'm talking about. (Vera Drake also does a fantastic job of highlighting the class divide when it comes to abortion.) We have to take action here! This is our past, but if we don't speak up, it may also be our future. And that's a truly horrifying thought.