Long wait for abortions ‘agony’ for some women

By Sara Ditta

Ottawa women will face painful and more stressful abortions as wait times for the procedure become increasingly longer.

It has been a problem for the last two years, but this year has been the worst, says Joan Wright, manager of the Morgentaler Clinic.

“It’s been really bad this last year,” she says. “To wait is just agony.”

The current average wait time in Ottawa is three to four weeks. That had climbed up to six weeks more than a month ago when the Ottawa Hospital’s abortion clinic was closed for two weeks. By comparison, the wait time in Toronto is only days.

Morgentaler is one of only two places where women can get abortions in Ottawa and only operates two days a week. Women can also get abortions at the women’s health centre at the hospital.However, it only has 19 open slots per week.

For those women who end up waiting for the procedure, the delay can take its toll.

“If she’s facing so many barriers to access the services, it’s really difficult emotionally and physically because your body is still pregnant,” says Patricia LaRue, director of Canadians for Choice, a pro-choice, non-profit organization.

And the longer a woman remains pregnant, the more physically stressful the procedure is for her.

One young Ottawa woman, who asked to remain anonymous, says she hadn’t expected to wait nearly as long to get the procedure.

“At worst I thought I would have to wait a week or so,” she said in an e-mail interview.

She made an appointment at the Ottawa Hospital in mid-July, but could not get the procedure until nearly two months later, when she was 19 weeks pregnant and close to the cutoff line of getting the procedure done.

The wait also made her re-think her choice, knowing how developed the fetus would be.

“Once I found out that I was going to have to wait for so long, I immediately second guessed my decision,” she said.

Because she was so far along in her pregnancy, the abortion was more painful and stressful than normal.

She says she considers the time she had to wait “physically and mentally not acceptable.”

A clerk at the Ottawa Hospital’s women’s health centre, who did not want to be named, says some women can deal with the wait as long as they know they’ll get an anesthetic for the procedure. This appeals to many young women and is not offered at Morgentaler, she says.

However, she says, it would help reduce the wait at the hospital if private clinics could take more patients.

But at the moment, many women are choosing alternatives because the current wait is already too long to handle.

“Anything past two weeks puts them in a straight panic, and rightfully so,” says Wright.

The Morgentaler Clinic tries to give priority to women who are later along in their pregnancy and fits them in first if there is a cancellation, she says.

Some women who don’t want to wait are forced to travel to Toronto or Montreal and even other countries.

LaRue says while alternatives may be available, many women can’t afford the expenses.

Another option for women is a medical abortion, which involves taking a pill instead of surgery. But it is only available to women who are less than seven weeks pregnant and it’s a rare option in Ottawa because only a handful of doctors offer the service.

Opening the Morgentaler clinic an extra day per week would have a huge impact in reducing the lengthy wait times, says Wright. But extra funding would be needed.

Funding for the private clinic comes from the provincial government through the Independent Health Facilities program. It is based on the number of clinics in an area, says David Jensen of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

The Morgentaler Clinic has requested more funding in the past, but it was denied because no funding was available for the expansion of any independent health facilities at the time, says Jensen.

But the procedures actually cost more when a woman is further along in her pregnancy, which could make up for costs, says Wright. The clinic already has the facilities, staff and doctors who are willing to stay open an extra day, she says.

Currently, Wright says providing even the simplest services, such as booking an appointment, is difficult and patients really feel the effects.

“They feel discouraged,” she says. “They feel like this can’t be right.”