Northern Manitoba woman hopes sharing story of her abortion will help fight stigma, improve access
Alana Cole | CBC News | Posted: May 16, 2022 10:00 AM | Last Updated: May 16, 2022
'It's a thing that happens and it's OK,' says Noelle Drimmie, who had abortion in 2019 due to health concerns
Noelle Drimmie still remembers the challenges she faced just a few years ago while trying to get a prescription for the abortion drug Mifegymiso in Flin Flon, Man., where she lives.
Drimmie, now 38, said she first visited a doctor who said she couldn't write the prescription but would try to find someone in The Pas who would.
Next, she visited a nurse practitioner at a different clinic who told her she'd have to make the trip to Winnipeg — more than 600 kilometres to the south.
"It was a really difficult time, plus now we're planning a trip to Winnipeg," said Drimmie, describing what the experience was like in 2019.
Now, with a recently leaked draft from the U.S. Supreme Court suggesting it may overturn Roe v. Wade — the landmark 1973 decision that allowed legal abortions there — Drimmie says she wants to speak out about the importance of access to Mifegymiso in every community.
"I think wherever women live, or anyone with a uterus lives, there should be access to this," she said.
Mifegymiso, the brand name for the two-drug treatment that terminates pregnancy, became available in Canada in 2017.
Currently, anyone with a Manitoba health card and a prescription can access it at no cost, a provincial spokesperson said.
But while access to Mifegymiso has improved in Manitoba in recent years, advocates say there are still barriers to getting a prescription for some in remote and rural communities.
Drimmie was eventually able to access the prescription through the Women's Health Clinic in Winnipeg, but doesn't think she should have had to make an eight-hour drive to get a prescription.
She made the decision to have an abortion due to health concerns.
She already had a then seven-month-old daughter, who was born prematurely at 28 weeks.
Drimmie said she had been told by doctors that getting pregnant within the year after her daughter's birth would be risky for her health and the pregnancy, due to complications from a caesarean section.
"It was a difficult discussion but … mentally, physically, financially, like, every arrow pointed to 'we can't do this,'" Drimmie said.
"It would be … dangerous for me, dangerous for the child and just our entire family would have suffered."
Changes in northern Manitoba
Since her experience, Manitoba's Northern Health Region, which includes Flin Flon, has made changes.
In 2020, a new policy stated that practitioners who don't want to prescribe Mifegymiso must refer patients to someone who will.
A spokesperson for the Northern Health Region at the time said there were at least four people in The Pas and two in Thompson trained to provide medication abortion.
Last week, the Northern Health Region said since practitioners don't report to the health region whether they prescribe the drug, it couldn't say how many do now.
However, a spokesperson said currently, no one is referred to Winnipeg for a medication abortion unless they want to go, though patients are still referred to Winnipeg for surgical abortions.
Across the province, access to Mifegymiso has improved over the last five years as an increasing number of pharmacies carry it, according to Kemlin Nembhard, the executive director of the Women's Health Clinic in Winnipeg.
But the clinic still sees patients from outside the city.
Nembhard said there are a variety of reasons people might leave their community to get Mifegymiso, such as difficulty finding a practitioner who prescribes the drug or a pharmacy that has it.
Another factor is stigma.
That can lead to some people avoiding accessing the medication close to home, or to challenges in finding out which practitioners prescribe it.
Unequal access for rural, northern Manitobans
As is the case elsewhere in Canada, access is greater in Manitoba's urban centres, she said.
"You have a lot more choice in terms of not only practitioners but also pharmacies," she said. "But if you live in, you know, remote areas — whether that's rural, northern — that may not be the case."
The cost of having to travel out of their community is another barrier some people face when choosing to have an abortion, said Nembhard.
The Women's Health Clinic works to help connect people outside Winnipeg with abortion care providers closer to their own communities when possible, she said.
Last week, the government of Canada announced more than $3.5 million in funding for improving access to abortion and reproductive health information and referral services in Canada.
Nembhard wants to see more health-care providers in Manitoba get the training needed to prescribe Mifegymiso.
"If you don't have the choice but to leave your community to have access to something, then that access is not equal," she said.
Emily Pruder works in northern Manitoba as an abortion doula, connecting people with abortion resources.
She said in spite of the health region's policy aimed at improving access to the abortion drug, she'd still like to see more health-care providers in the north who offer abortion care.
"It still hasn't created the access that people truly deserve and need," Pruder said.
She'd also like to see the option for surgical abortion in northern Manitoba.
Drimmie, meanwhile, hopes telling her story will help "break that stigma and help break some of that negative cycle thinking about abortion."
"I have a young daughter and so I really felt that it was important to sort of share my story, which I haven't really done with a lot of people," she said.
"I want other people, you know, with a uterus to know it's a thing that happens and it's OK."