Abortion misinformation ‘has been allowed to flourish’ in New Brunswick, says prof [video]

A researcher at the University of New Brunswick says that harmful misinformation about abortion continues to circulate, even as the provincial government reduces barriers to this essential health care service. 

Sociologist Tobin LeBlanc Haley — who is also a member of the NB Media Co-op board of directors — presented a paper that she co-authored along with Christine Hughes as part of the Feminist Lunch Series at UNB Fredericton on Friday, Feb. 7. 

LeBlanc Haley has recorded a version of that talk, which the NB Media Co-op is sharing as part of Sexual Health Week, to push back against misinformation in our communities. The broader research involved 28 interviews and three focus groups, with a total of 43 unique participants.

“A lack of clear knowledge about where, how and what it means to have an abortion can frustrate patient decision-making and can cause unnecessary stress and anxiety,” she said. 

Misinformation “has been allowed to flourish on abortion in New Brunswick,” according to the researchers. That includes myths about the “moral character” of abortion patients, health risks, pathways to access, and the motivations of clinic-based abortion providers, LeBlanc Haley said. 

For example, some research participants spoke about “the ongoing assumption that abortion patients are somehow irresponsible or deviant,” she said. The myth of the “irresponsible” abortion patient wasn’t a dominant theme but “it was present, which is deeply and profoundly troubling,” LeBlanc Haley said. 

One of the most disturbing results of the study, she said, was that some research participants believed that “there was zero access to abortion in the province.” 

Procedural abortion services do, however, remain limited in New Brunswick. 

Three hospitals in New Brunswick offer procedural abortions, two of them in Moncton and one in Bathurst. Medication abortions are available with the abortion pill Mifegymiso.

When the Liberal Party defeated the Progressive Conservatives in the provincial election in October, one of Premier Susan Holt’s first moves was to repeal Regulation 84-20. 

That regulation made New Brunswick unique in Canada for restricting Medicare-funded procedural abortions, also called surgical abortions, to hospital settings.  

Clinic 554, which was the only freestanding clinic offering procedural abortions in Fredericton and offered the service free of charge to people who couldn’t afford the fee, was forced to shut down last year due to financial pressures. 

LeBlanc Haley also discussed issues including the “great replacement theory,” a conspiracy theory which views abortions as displacing white people as the majority in countries like Canada and the United States. 

This white supremacist conspiracy theory has resurged “especially in the period that we’re in now following the overturn of Roe v. Wade and amidst the very troubling rise of fascism that we are all currently witnessing and living through,” she said. 

This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Stations and Users (CACTUS).