Abortion services not needed on P.E.I., protesters say

Protesters outside Prince County Hospital on Saturday were holding out hope the province will change its plans and not provide abortion services at the hospital.

More than 100 people staged a peaceful protest on the sidewalk near the Summerside, P.E.I., hospital, which is undergoing a $5.35 million expansion that will include a Women's Wellness Centre.

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The work won't be complete until 2018, but Health PEI says it will start phasing in some services, which could include "pregnancy termination," at temporary locations in the hospital as early as January.

Nicole Dupuis, executive director of PEI Right to Life Association, says she was at the rally to show Health PEI there is no need to go ahead with abortion services, and that pregnant women shouldn't have to feel alone or vulnerable.

"What we're hoping is that there is so much pregnancy support available to women, that they will never feel like they have to have an abortion," she said.

P.E.I. is the only province in Canada that does not offer abortion services. In some cases, it would provide funding for women to have the abortion at a clinic off-Island.

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Change in policy

Abortions rights advocates have lobbied government for years to have the service provided on the Island. In January, they gave notice they would be filing a lawsuit to force the province to provide full and unrestricted access to publicly funded abortion services on the Island.

Premier Wade MacLauchlan, a former dean of law at the University of New Brunswick and a professor of law at Dalhousie University, said the province likely wouldn't have been able to successfully defend itself against that suit.

In March, he announced abortion services would become available as part of the Prince County Hospital expansion.

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