After a decades-long battle by pro-choice groups, Canada’s Prince Edward Island will abandon a policy that saw the province become the only one in the country where women cannot access an abortion.



Wade MacLauchlan, the Liberal premier of PEI, announced plans on Thursday to build a reproductive health centre on the island that will offer medical and surgical abortions, among other services. The aim is to begin providing abortions by the end of the year.

The issue has been a flashpoint for decades in the province, where advocates say the last abortion was carried out in the early 1980s. In 1988, after Canada’s supreme court struck down the federal criminal law on abortion, PEI passed a resolution opposing abortions in the province.

In January, a pro-choice group took the government to court, arguing that the province has an obligation to provide unrestricted, publicly funded abortions. On Thursday, MacLauchlan said that while many in his cabinet and caucus have differing opinions on abortion, the government realised it likely would not be able to defend itself against the legal challenge and had been forced to change course.

The news was celebrated by pro-choice advocates on the island. “I’m just elated,” said Ann Wheatley. “It’s been a really long, hard struggle and this is a very satisfying day.”

For decades women in PEI would have to get a referral from a doctor in PEI to travel to the neighbouring province of Nova Scotia for the procedure or foot the cost of having an abortion at a private clinic off the island.

Those who couldn’t make the journey at times made desperate decisions, said Wheatley, with some trying to induce abortions by ingesting chemicals or being punched in the stomach. “There have been stories of women who have gone through extreme hardship to get an abortion.”

In June, the provincial government said it would pay for abortions carried out in the neighbouring province of New Brunswick. But it remained obstinate about providing access to abortions on the island. “It really sent the message that there was something wrong with abortion and gave it an aura of shame and stigma that really affected women and affected access to abortion,” said Wheatley.

Thursday’s announcement was welcomed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “A woman’s right to choose is a fundamental right in our country,” he said in a statement. “The Government of Canada reaffirms its belief that a woman should have access to reproductive health services, no matter where they live in our country.”

The prime minister’s support for abortions came as the issue dominated the daily coverage of the US presidential election, after Republican frontrunner Donald Trump said in a TV interview on Wednesday that abortion should be illegal and the women who undergo the procedure should face punishment. He later attempted to recant, saying that only those who perform abortions should be held legally responsible.