Related Stories  •  Morgentaler to sue over abortion funding

Canada's best-known abortion doctor is taking New Brunswick to court, saying the provincial government has a moral debt to women of at least $16-million dollars.

Dr. Henry Morgentaler, the father of the abortion-rights movement in Canada, announced a lawsuit Wednesday at his Fredericton clinic. Dr. Morgentaler is trying to force the province to pay for abortions in private clinics, as they are obliged to do under the Canada Health Act.

"I'm here to announce a legal challenge to the government of New Brunswick on the basis that they are violating the law of the country by discriminating against women by denying them to access to abortion services to which they are entitled under Medicare," he said.

"By not paying for abortions, the New Brunswick government has been saving money on the misery of women."

He calculated the province's savings at about $16-million, based on the estimation that about 500 women a year terminate their pregnancies outside the provincial hospital system.

Dr. Morgentaler is expected to announce a similar lawsuit against Nova Scotia on Thursday. He said it will be several weeks before the actual suits can be filed and he estimates his legal bill will be at least $1-million.

The Canadian Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL) will lend its support to Dr. Morgentaler's latest legal battle.

He says the two provinces are guilty of "willful and deliberate discrimination."

Marilyn Wilson, executive director of CARAL, accompanied Dr. Morgentaler to Fredericton on Wednesday and announced that the organization would immediately begin raising money from its supporters for a legal-defence fund.

Ms. Wilson said she believes the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia challenges will be test cases for Canadian law.

"Fourteen years ago, we thought we'd won the battle for reproductive rights in Canada," Ms. Wilson said, referring to the 1988 Supreme Court of Canada decision that said women have a constitutional right to access to abortion in an equitable manner.

"We've woken up to the fact that over the last 10 years, those rights have been declining enormously across the country, because of actions by the anti-choice movement; by the refusal of doctors to perform or refer for abortions; by the lack of hospital care and by the lack of payment for clinic abortions."

New Brunswick pays only for abortions in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy if they're performed in hospital, and only after the woman has the approval of two doctors.

Dr. Morgentaler called the New Brunswick government "sexist and chauvinistic" and accused them of victimizing and oppressing women.

He says women in many parts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick face lengthy delays in obtaining hospital abortions. If they travel instead to a private clinic, they must pay $500 or $600 for the procedure.

The federal government has threatened to cut off health funds to New Brunswick in the past over the abortion issue, but no action has been taken.

There are eight Morgentaler clinics across Canada, with the St. John's, Fredericton and Halifax locations involved in the lawsuit.

Nova Scotia Health Minister Jamie Muir said Wednesday that the Progressive Conservative government intends to defend itself if a suit is filed.

With a report from Canadian Press