Clinic 554 in Fredericton. (Image: Facebook)
The Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada says Premier Blaine Higgs blocked the group on Twitter after they posted support for Clinic 554 in Fredericton.
Activists have been tweeting in support of the community health clinic which has said it will soon close due to a lack of government funding for its services.
Residents are lobbying for the government to step in and save Clinic 554, which has been sought out by patients across the Maritimes due to services that are otherwise difficult to find in Eastern Canada, such as healthcare access for transgender patients and in-clinic abortions.
Tasia Alexopoulos is the social media coordinator for the ARCC and a New Brunswick resident. Though the group has since been unblocked by the premier, she says it’s still unclear why they were blocked in the first place.
On social media, the group will tag politicians like the premier or Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to signal-boost their message, but their social media presence also endeavours to be respectful.
“I was very surprised because in my mind nothing outrageous or out of the ordinary preceded the blocking,” she said.
Alexopoulos believes the blocking is in line with the Higgs government’s attempts to stonewall discussions about the lack of funding for abortion services in the province.
“The doctors who work at Clinic 554 have repeatedly said they receive no response when they try to make a meeting or call (the Premier),” Alexopoulos says.
The ARCC says it advocates for the clinic because it provides life-saving procedures for Maritimers.
“The consequence of not having access to healthcare, in general, has been proven to be deadly,” Alexopoulos said. “It’s the same with abortion. Studies have shown, history has shown, anecdotes tell us when people who need abortions don’t have safe access, their lives are at risk.”
She says while in-clinic abortions have proven to be safe, there are countless examples of people without access attempting to perform unsafe at-home abortions which can result in many unintended outcomes including death.
A study by the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-choice research institute, estimated that up to 31,000 deaths occur globally each year as a result of unsafe abortions.
The Higgs’ government has maintained that abortions can be accessed in publicly-funded hospitals, and that funding Clinic 554 would be a step toward privatizing the healthcare system. There are currently three public hospitals which provide abortions in New Brunswick, two in Moncton and one in Bathurst.
A regulation of the Medical Services Payment Act known as Regulation 84-20 also prevents the province from funding in-clinic abortions.
Alexopoulos says that the regulation is “a throwback to old regulations from the 70s and 80s,” and that it violates the Canada Health Act, which guarantees that all patients have access to timely abortions.
The ARCC is fighting to repeal that law, which they say Higgs could choose to do at any point.
“They refuse to meet with their stakeholders. They refuse to provide their constituents with the health care that they’re entitled to under the Canada Health Act,” Alexopoulos said. “There’s no other explanation except to say that this government is anti-abortion.”
LIVID that the Premier of New Brunswick has blocked us.
Not only do we have every right to tweet at him but our social media coordinator is a resident of New Brunswick. #PremierBlaineHiggs: you should be ashamed of yourself. @CBCNB @SaveClinic554 @ReproJusticeNB @nbmediacoop pic.twitter.com/UydOAt0Ru4— ARCC-CDAC (@AbortionRights) August 8, 2020
