Clinic 554 is a family practice located in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Their website says that Clinic 554 prioritizes harm-reduction, sex positivity, gender-celebratory care, anti-racist and feminist practices, and full-scope reproductive care, including abortions.
The future of the clinic is uncertain, as the government of New Brunswick will not provide the clinic with funding to cover the cost of abortions.
The clinic’s building was put up for sale in 2019 as a result of financial instability.
Meg Cunningham speaks with Tasia Alexopoulos, the social media coordinator for Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, who provides context about the situation.
M: Can you talk about the significance of Clinic 554’s potential closure?
T: It’s huge. It’s actually very hard to put into words what a huge loss it would be for the province to lose Clinic 554. Folks who don’t live in New Brunswick, or people who don’t live in rural areas in Canada. It’s hard to imagine how difficult it is to get a doctor here. There are so many people on waitlist for just a family doctor in this province and Clinic 554 offers medical services like you know, they are people’s family doctors. They provide specific health care access for like trans specific medical care, they service the queer community. So all of these people who use this service who are not accessing abortions will lose their doctor and their medical care. Simply because Clinic 554 also provides abortions. So in a global pandemic when we are constantly thinking about health care and public health and safety, it’s so unsafe and really terrifying that the province would close a thriving clinic that services a huge community just because they also provide abortions.
The closure of Clinic 554 would cause approximately 3,000 people to lose access to their medical care provider.
Sexual health advocate and founder of Sex Ed East Lisa Hamilton says that New Brunswick hospitals are not enough to provide adequate access to abortion services.
M: Can you describe abortion access in the province of New Brunswick as it stands right now?
L: Sure, so abortion access in New Brunswick is quite dismal. There have been some improvements since I first moved here in 2010. So for example, it used to be that you had to have approval from two different doctors to get an abortion at a hospital in New Brunswick. Now you just need one doctor. But right now there are only two hospitals in New Brunswick that do them and if it’s done at a hospital fund by Medicare, but of course, you have to be able to get to Moncton or to Bathurst where those hospitals are. And in the Fredericton, or the west of the province in the Fredericton area, the only place to get an abortion is that Clinic 554 and the province refuses to pay for abortions done at the clinic, even though they’re very safe, it’s actually more cost effective to do abortions in clinic.
Hamilton is concerned about how the closure of Clinic 554 will impact the province’s vulnerable populations, particularly pregnant people and trans people.
L: In general, if we’re talking about access to health care for people who need abortions as well as for trans people, so these are both groups of people who are marginalized, and are potentially further marginalized by losing this vital resource in our province.
Clinic 554 is compiling a class-action lawsuit against the provincial government.
The suit is to compensate for funds paid by the clinic and their clients for abortion procedures that the government refused to cover.
L: My understanding is because people technically under the federal health care guidelines should not be paying for this basic medical care that people who paid out of pocket for their abortions that Clinic 554 could potentially join in for a class action lawsuit against the province.
Abortions can cost between $700 for New Brunswick residents to $2000 for non-New Brunswick residents, such as migrant workers or international students.
Alexopoulos says that a lawsuit is not the ideal method to get the attention of the government.
T: For several years now Clinic 554 has been requesting to negotiate with the government to really meet on common ground and to discuss this issue and the government just refuses to meet with them or to even consider helping and so Clinic 554 is being placed into a position where they’re being forced to sue the government and you know, Blaine Higgs said yesterday, that’s the great thing that that’s the advantage of living in Canada. If you don’t like something you can take it to court. And isn’t that just terrible that a doctor, a medical provider, who is caring for the people of this province, is being forced to do the government when the government is breaking the law.
Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, the organization Alexopoulos runs the social media for, was recently blocked by Premier Blaine Higgs’s twitter account.
The provincial government is citing regulation 84-20 as the grounds for refusal of funding, which is under the Medical Services Payment Act.
This regulation declares that abortions must take place in a hospital in order to be covered by the provincial government.
Regulation 84-20 was filed in 1984.
Alexopoulos says that regulation 84-20 needs to be repealed.
T: The regulation that they cite is regulation 84-20. And that’s what we want repealed. And it’s that abortions in New Brunswick have to take place in a hospital to be covered. So that’s what they’re saying is that well, we have enough abortion access, we don’t need to repeal regulation 84-20 because the hospitals provide enough care for folks in New Brunswick. And, you know, across Canada, abortion is covered by Medicare. And so for it not to be covered in New Brunswick it is really out of line with the rest of the provinces and is of course in violation of the Canada Health Act. And they’ve been censured by the federal government. So the federal government did withhold health spending transfers, and that was a couple hundred thousand dollars, I believe but because of the pandemic, they didn’t actually withhold the funds. Because of course the province needs the funds to battle the pandemic. So it was kind of a slap on the wrist. So we know that they’re in violation. We know the federal government has kind of slapped them on the wrist, but nothing else is happening. The government is saying we’re not going to do this. We’re not going to fund abortions outside of hospitals. So come sue us.
The official number originally withheld from New Brunswick’s budget was $140,216.
That funding was later released during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Advocacy group Save Clinic 554 remains active on Facebook and social media.
They are asking New Brunswick residents concerned for the future of Clinic 554 to write, email, and call their local MPs as well as public health, the Minister of Health, and the Women’s Equality Branch.
Clinic 554 accepts donations via paypal or e-transfer. All funds will go towards direct care.
