Reproductive Justice NB is deeply saddened by the news that by February 2024, Clinic 554 will no longer provide abortion care.  We are grateful for the years of hard work, passion, and advocacy the staff and volunteers have provided since the Clinic’s opening in 2015.

This marks the end of 30 years of procedural abortion care in the capital region since 1994 when Dr. Henry Morgentaler opened a clinic in Fredericton and began providing non-judgmental, accessible, safe abortion care. It is devastating that after 30 years of work and advocacy, we are losing vital health care service.

We are deeply concerned about the impacts of the loss of this essential health care. For years, Clinic 554 has been filling the gaps left wide open by our current reproductive health care system, accepting referrals from the hospitals and providing pro-bono abortion and contraception care to those who simply can’t afford it. 

Clinic 554 is the only free-standing clinic providing out of hospital abortions in the province and in the Maritimes. We are losing a dedicated service providing timely, trauma- and- violence-informed care, often serving those the hospital system failed.  Clinic 554 served people beyond the hospital’s gestational age limit, people without medicare (such as asylum seekers or international students), people who use drugs or are unhoused, people in precarious work, people without care, and minors without supportive parents, among many others. Clinic 554 has always met the needs of many, but in particular those already marginalized and excluded from our current healthcare system. 

The persistence of Schedule 2.a1 of Regulation 84.20 of the Medical Services Payment Act is the foundation of this loss. With just the stroke of a pen, our Premier could remove this restrictive, unconstitutional regulation and fund procedural abortions outside the hospital setting. The government has recently removed similar regulations governing other procedures such as cataract surgery, which are now funded by Medicare when performed outside a hospital setting. Regulation 84.20 has been maintained by successive NB governments, allowing misogyny to continue restricting abortion care in our province, to the detriment of patients.

We extend our deepest thanks to the staff, volunteers, and advocates who fought for 30 years to maintain procedural abortion care in the Capital region, with a particular thanks to the services provided by Clinic 554 since 2015. 

RJNB demands that the NB government remove Regulation 84.20 of the Medical Services Payment Act and fund procedural abortions outside the hospital setting. Lives depend on it.