Northern Manitoba woman hopes sharing story of her abortion will help fight stigma, improve access

Noelle Drimmie still remembers the challenges she faced just a few years ago while trying to get a prescription for the abortion drug Mifegymiso in Flin Flon, Man., where she lives.

Drimmie, now 38, said she first visited a doctor who said she couldn't write the prescription but would try to find someone in The Pas who would.

Next, she visited a nurse practitioner at a different clinic who told her she'd have to make the trip to Winnipeg more than 600 kilometres to the south.

"It was a really difficult time, plus now we're planning a trip to Winnipeg," said Drimmie, describing what the experience was likein 2019.

Now, with a recently leaked draft from the U.S. Supreme Court suggesting it may overturn Roe v. Wadethe landmark 1973 decisionthat allowed legal abortionsthere Drimmiesays she wantsto speak out about the importance ofaccess to Mifegymiso in every community.

"I think wherever women live, or anyone with a uterus lives, there should be access to this," she said.

Mifegymiso, the brand name for the two-drug treatment that terminates pregnancy, became available in Canada in 2017.

Currently, anyone with a Manitoba health card and a prescription can access it at no cost, a provincial spokesperson said.

Butwhile access to Mifegymiso has improved in Manitoba in recent years, advocates say there are still barriersto getting a prescriptionfor somein remote and rural communities.

Drimmie was eventually able to access the prescription through the Women's Health Clinic in Winnipeg, but doesn't think she should have had to make an eight-hour drive to get a prescription.

She made the decision to have an abortion due to health concerns.

She already had a then seven-month-old daughter, who was born prematurely at 28 weeks.

Drimmie said she had been told by doctorsthat getting pregnant within the year after her daughter's birth would be risky for her health and the pregnancy, due to complications from a caesareansection.

"It was a difficult discussion but mentally, physically, financially, like, every arrow pointed to 'we can't do this,'" Drimmiesaid.

"It would be dangerous for me, dangerous for the child and just our entire family would have suffered."

Changes in northern Manitoba

Since her experience, Manitoba's Northern Health Region, which includes Flin Flon,has made changes.

In 2020, a new policy stated that practitioners who don't want to prescribe Mifegymiso must refer patients to someone who will.

A spokesperson for the Northern Health Region at the time saidthere were at least four people in The Pasand two in Thompson trained to provide medication abortion.

Last week, the Northern Health Region said since practitioners don'treport to the health region whether they prescribe the drug, it couldn't sayhow many do now.

However, a spokesperson said currently, no one is referred to Winnipeg for a medication abortion unless they want to go, though patients are still referred to Winnipeg for surgical abortions.

Across the province, access to Mifegymiso has improved over the last five years as an increasing number of pharmacies carry it, according to Kemlin Nembhard, the executive director of the Women's Health Clinic in Winnipeg.

Butthe clinic still sees patients from outside the city.

Nembhard said there area variety of reasons people might leave their community to get Mifegymiso, such as difficulty finding a practitioner who prescribes the drug or a pharmacy that has it.

Another factor is stigma.

That can leadto some people avoiding accessing themedication close to home, or to challenges in findingout whichpractitioners prescribe it.

Unequal access for rural, northern Manitobans

As is the case elsewhere in Canada, access is greater in Manitoba's urban centres, she said.

"You have a lot more choice in terms of not only practitioners but also pharmacies," she said. "But if you live in, you know, remote areas whether that's rural, northern that may not be the case."

The cost of having to travel out of their community is another barrier some people face when choosing to have an abortion, said Nembhard.

The Women's Health Clinic works to help connect people outside Winnipeg with abortion care providers closer to their own communities when possible, she said.

Last week, the government of Canada announced more than$3.5 million in funding for improving access to abortion and reproductive health information and referral services in Canada.

Nembhard wants to see more health-care providers in Manitoba get the training needed to prescribe Mifegymiso.

"If you don't have the choice but to leave your community to have access to something, then that access is not equal," she said.

Emily Pruder works in northern Manitoba as an abortion doula, connecting people with abortion resources.

She said in spite of the health region's policy aimed atimproving access to the abortion drug, she'd still like to see more health-care providers in the northwho offer abortion care.

"It still hasn't created the access that people truly deserve and need,"Pruder said.

She'd also like to see the option for surgical abortion in northern Manitoba.

Drimmie, meanwhile, hopes telling her story will help "break that stigma and help break some of that negative cycle thinking about abortion."

"I have a young daughter and so I really felt that it was important to sort of share my story, which I haven't really done with a lot of people," she said.

"I want other people, you know, with a uterus to know it's a thing that happens and it's OK."

Northern Manitoba woman hopes sharing story of her abortion will help fight stigma

2 years ago

Duration 2:25

Noelle Drimmie is sharing her difficult story. The Flin Flon, Man. woman hopes that it reduces stigma around abortions in light of recent U.S. news that constitutional rights to the procedure may be overturned there.