Petition targets abortion challenges in north

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This article was published 31/07/2022 (879 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As one of the first northern Manitoba residents to access the abortion pill after it became available free of charge in the province, Harlie Pruder knows first-hand the hurdles the North faces in comprehensive reproductive health care.

When Pruder needed an abortion a few years ago, there were no doctors in Thompson prescribing Mifegymiso, a two-drug package covered under the provincial health plan since September 2019. Pruder couldn’t get it without first embarking on an eight-hour round trip.

The prospective public health university student and founder of the Northern Reproductive Justice Network had to drive to The Pas to get a prescription. Then back to Thompson where Pruder had to order the medication from a pharmacy.

“It was such a horrible process,” said Pruder, who is Métis, identifies as two-spirit and uses they/them pronouns.

Soon afterward, physicians in Thompson, the hub and largest city of northern Manitoba, did begin prescribing Mifegymiso. But there’s still a lot more progress needed to make abortion accessible in the North, Pruder said.

They wanted to do more to highlight inequalities in northern abortion access, particularly in the wake of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that had legalized abortion in that country.

While abortion is legal in Canada and the abortion pill is covered in Manitoba, abortion care is still not easy to get in many areas of the province, Pruder said.

Earlier this month, they started an online petition that’s gathered more than 1,600 signatures calling on the Northern Health Region to start providing surgical abortions in Thompson and make Mifegymiso more widely available.

Surgical abortions are only performed in Winnipeg and Brandon, and the abortion pill can only be taken within the first nine weeks of pregnancy.

Pruder said there’s a need for more regionally and culturally relevant public information about accessing abortion in Manitoba — both online and in written pamphlets. Northern Health’s brief web page on medical abortion, for example, doesn’t state patients are required to be nearby a hospital when they take the abortion pill.

Pruder said they have heard from friends that those who live in communities without hospitals have been required to travel to a larger centre to take the medication.

Sara Pawlachuk, executive assistant to chief executive officer Helga Bryant, didn’t address any Free Press questions about abortion services. Instead, she provided a link to the health authority’s website.

The health authority later stated more than 250 northerners have accessed Mifegymiso since it became available in the region in 2020, and about 50 have accessed it so far this year.

Patients are advised to stay close to an ER after taking the medication, the Women’s Health Clinic in Winnipeg confirmed.

“After taking Mifegymiso, patients don’t need to be directly monitored but should be close enough to an emergency room after taking the medication in case of complications. If someone accesses medication abortion through WHC, they have access to an on-call physician to answer any questions they might have. Additionally, a practitioner will follow up with them 48 hours after ingestion of Mifegymiso,” a WHC spokeswoman stated.

“If someone has taken Mifegymiso and is experiencing severe bleeding (soaking 4 maxi pads in 2 hours and are passing clots larger than lemons), severe cramping that pain pills don’t help, and fever and chills for more than 4 hours, we recommend they head to an emergency room immediately.”

Danielle Adams, the Thompson NDP MLA who died in a car accident late last year, had been trying to expand abortion services in the North even before she was elected, Pruder said. The petition is due in part to Adams’ work, Pruder said.

“She was such an inspiration for getting this activist work done and standing up for me in solidarity.”

Pruder said they hope the petition will lead to more funding and more medical training for reproductive health care in northern communities.

“It’s not comprehensive care that we have, and while I recognize there are concerned individuals who were working within the Northern Health Region who were trying to make abortion more accessible, it still needs to have that patient-advocate voice, and people who are able to see it from a different perspective.”

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca