Abortion information line disconnected
Last Updated: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 | 7:07 AM AT
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A toll-free number to help P.E.I. women seeking an abortion has closed down due to lack of funding.
The number had been funded by the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League, but after that organization folded funding dried up. Anne Wheatley, who works in the Island's pro-choice movement, said the toll-free number had been operating for the past 15 years.
"Up until last fall we were receiving probably about five calls a month, just for information," said Wheatley.
"The information is available in more places now than it used to be, for example Women's Network and the Advisory Council on the Status of Women. And there are doctors across the Island who are certainly giving that information out."
The Women's Network says it receives two to three calls a month from people seeking information about abortion.
P.E.I. doesn't offer any abortion services. Women must travel to the private Morgentaler clinic in Fredericton or the Queen Elizabeth II hospital in Halifax.
The provincial government will cover the cost of the procedure if it's done in hospital, and as long as a woman has been referred by two doctors. The government says it covers the cost of close to 50 abortions a year.
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