Privacy commissioner orders release of more northern Ontario abortion info to allow for 'meaningful debate'
CBC
Documents obtained through freedom of information requests are giving us a rare glimpse at abortion services in northern Ontario.
This comes after the province's information and privacy commissioner overruled a decision by the Ministry of Health.
The figures show that there were over 400 surgical abortions performed in the northeast in 2021 and that it's been steadily declining since 2017.
But the province is now refusing to say what the reason for that might be or answer any questions about abortion access in the north.
"The ministry continues to support access to medically necessary services across the province and in the north," reads a statement from the Ministry of Health.
"I think what it says is we're still in a battle to have abortion seen as a regular part of the health care system," said Carolyn Egan from the Coalition for Ontario Abortion Clinics.
In 2012 when Ontario hospitals were added to the Freedom of Information and Privacy Act, the government took the unusual step of prohibiting the release of any information related to abortion.
A similar clause for medical assistance in dying was added when it became legal in 2017.
That same year, a court ruled that the ban on abortion information violated the charter of rights and the law was amended to prohibit any information that might identify where abortions are performed.
When the CBC requested northern abortion numbers in 2019, the Ministry of Health claimed that data would reveal the location of abortion clinics and also initially claimed that it could be used to identify patients and staff.
The CBC appealed to Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner, which overruled the ministry in November 2021, finding there was no evidence to support the government's claims.
"There is insufficient reliable statistical data to allow for meaningful debate on abortion," adjudicator Daphne Loukidelis wrote in her decision.
"In order to have a meaningful public debate the available information to allow for a meaningful public debate certainly needs to go beyond some of the basic statistical information offered by Ontario in these proceedings."
After that, the CBC acquired the following statistics for surgical abortions performed in the different districts of northern Ontario.
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