Horizon Health to offer abortion services only in Moncton Hospital

Horizon Health has confirmed Moncton Hospital will be the single site for English language access to provincially funded abortions in New Brunswick.

In a brief email statement, Horizon president and CEO, John McGarry said "family planning services" will begin at the hospital in April.

The story was initially released by the alternate, NB Media Co-op. It included an email, attributed to McGarry, explaining that Moncton Hospital is best situated to be the single access site because it has a committed clinical team.

It says offering the service at one hospital rather than three will save Horizon a minimum of $500,000 a year.

In the email to CBC, McGarry confirms "The Moncton Hospital has been selected as the site where Horizon will provide family planning services."

McGarry did not elaborate and was not doing interviews Tuesday.

To this point, most women seeking access to the service have had to pay to obtain it from the Morgentaler clinic, recently reopened as Clinic 554.

To get a funded hospital abortion, two doctors had to certify the procedure as medically necessary.

'Waste of resources'

During the 2014 election campaign, Liberal Leader Brian Gallant promised to end those restrictions. In November he did that, but limiting the service to the Moncton hospital is being criticized.

Jessi Taylor is spokesperson for Reproductive Justice New Brunswick. She says Moncton already has abortion access through George Dumont Hospital.

"It's a waste of resources," says Taylor, "There are so many places around the province that have no services at all. There are no services in Saint John. There are no services in Miramichi. There are no services in Edmundston."

Taylor says the province should fund services at Fredericton's independent Clinic 554, which recently opened its doors on the site of the former Morgentaler clinic.

New Brunswick Right to Life sees it altogether differently with two Vitalité and now a Horizon Health hospital and Clinic 554 all offering the service.

"When you talk about abortion on demand, which is what we seem to have here in N.B. hospitals, it's a tragedy" says anti abortion activist, Peter Ryan.

"And it's a tragedy that's unnecessary. It's too bad that there seemingly are doctors willing to do abortions at the Moncton Hospital."