Health minister walks back claim about abortion access in hospitals

Alberta Health Minister Adriana LaGrange in Edmonton on Tuesday, May 14, 2024. (Galen McDougall/CTV News Edmonton)

Last week, Alberta Health Minister Adriana LaGrange played down concerns that transferring the operation of some hospitals to Covenant Health would negatively impact reproductive health care – but the minister’s claim about abortion access is contradicted by provincial policy and data.

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On Sept. 3, in her first media appearance since plans to move underperforming Alberta hospitals to third-party operators were revealed, LaGrange told Corus radio host Shaye Ganam, "There is no anticipated change to access to women’s reproductive health."

The Catholic health authority Covenant Health does not provide things like in-vitro fertilization and abortion.

When Ganam pointed out that swapping AHS for Covenant would necessarily create changes to women’s health care, LaGrange dismissed the idea: "Actually, there won’t be (a change). Because right now no hospital in Alberta performs elective abortions."

However, elective abortions are available in some AHS hospitals in Alberta. Any physician or nurse practitioner in the province can provide Mifegymiso, commonly known as the abortion pill.

Data from Alberta Health and the Canadian Institute for Health Information estimate that between 25 and 40 per cent of abortions are now performed using medication rather than surgical procedures.

Notably, the North, Central, and South Zones accounted for about 20 per cent of total Mifegymiso doses dispensed in 2023.

A spokesperson for AHS confirmed in an email the drug is available in its facilities: "Mifegymiso is available on the AHS formulary for clinicians to use in clinically appropriate situations such as medical termination of second trimester pregnancies."

The drug is also used in the treatment of miscarriage.

Minister LaGrange’s office said in an email that in her previous statement, the minister "was referring to elective surgical abortions."

Surgical abortions are currently only performed in clinics in Edmonton and Calgary.

LaGrange’s office did not say whether the government had plans to ensure reproductive health care is safeguarded if a hospital's operator changes.

"We are continuing to evaluate this on an ongoing basis and are exploring all options to ensure we have the right partner delivering the services Albertans need."

Change would potentially make bad situation worse

If a faith-based operator does take over some Alberta hospitals, there is every reason to believe the move would reduce access to reproductive health care, said Carmen Wyton, chair of the Women's Health Coalition of Canada.

"It isn't just about abortion, it's about the reproductive experience that a woman may go through and how she's going to be treated in the system as she goes through those journeys. It could be infertility, it could be miscarriages, all those kinds of things," she said.

Wyton said research literature shows restricting access to abortion has major impacts on women’s health, including higher rates of maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity in pregnant women.

"There is a stigma around the decisions that a woman might make for herself in terms of reproductive health, even contraceptive counselling, all of those things go hand-in-hand," she said. It's been reduced to abortion, but that really isn't what it's about.

"It's about the faith-based biases that get built into providing care to women for reproductive health in a manner that they choose. That's what's at risk, and it should be their choice."

Wyton also said that, while AHS facilities can provide elective abortions, that doesn’t mean the procedure is easily accessible in the province.

Despite being able to perform therapeutic abortions, some hospitals choose not to and continue to refer patients to specialized clinics instead. Policy changes that reduce access further would make "a bad situation, worse, potentially."

"The supports are already fragmented. And if some of those supports are now taken away from AHS, who at least has the longest history of being able to provide those supports, it becomes more fragile."