An anti-abortion activist who worked at an Ontario hospital was sacked after a massive privacy breach in which abortion files, among other patient records, were inappropriately accessed.

Dawn DeCiccio, a high-profile anti-abortion campaigner, was one of seven staff members fired from Peterborough Regional Health Centre after a privacy breach in which nearly 300 patient medical records were snooped into between 2011 and 2012, the Star has found.

During that time, DeCiccio was working as a health information clerk and she used to protest outside the hospital with the Peterborough Pro-Life group during her lunch hour on Saturdays, the agency said.

Ontario’s privacy commissioner told the Star on Friday that it was notified by Peterborough hospital in May 2011 that an employee with “a pro-life viewpoint” had been dismissed for accessing patient abortion files without authorization.

The Star could not confirm that the patient files DeCiccio illegally accessed were abortion records. DeCiccio has categorically denied that she inappropriately accessed any patient records or that she was fired from the hospital. “I left on my own accord,” she told the Star.

Nancy Martin-Ronson, Peterborough hospital’s chief information officer, said DeCiccio was the only staff member with a known anti-abortion stance who was fired in the breach.

She would not disclose if the records DeCiccio accessed were abortion files because, she said, information about abortion services was so sensitive it was excluded from the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Martin-Ronson said the information DeCiccio and the six other sacked staff members accessed was never shared with anyone else. “Ms. DeCiccio’s work computer and email were searched and did not reveal any evidence of patient personal health information having been disclosed,” she said.

Speaking to the Star Wednesday, DeCiccio said the allegations against her were all inaccurate, but she would not elaborate as to why. “I have no comment on my personal or professional life,” she said.

She confirmed she was part of Peterborough Pro-Life, a group that has protested outside the hospital every week for the past 25 years, holding signs that read: “Abortions are performed inside this hospital” and “Abortions Kill Babies.”

She is listed as an administrator on the group’s Facebook page. “I have been pro-life my whole adult life,” she told the Star.

In a letter to the editor of the Peterborough Examiner in 2012, DeCiccio wrote about taking part in a pro-life march: “We all make choices every day of our lives. Some we can live with, some we carry as terrible burdens, wishing we could go back in time and change our ‘choice’. In this case the choice is to allow the life to live or die … the choice is still yours … so are the consequences.”

Celia Posyniak, executive director of Kensington Clinic, an abortion clinic in Calgary, said prying into a patient’s abortion file is “a really heinous offence.”

Deciding to have an abortion is a “very personal and intimate decision and some women don’t tell anybody,” Posyniak said.

“Nobody wants to have unauthorized people accessing your records, but with abortion services there is another layer of need for confidentiality. I think it’s horrible and I’m sure a lot of people are terrified.”

This breach would “strike a lot of fear into the public,” especially as the health sector continues its shift toward electronic records, Posyniak said.

A multi-million-dollar lawsuit was filed against Peterborough hospital after it was revealed that 280 patient records had been breached. This privacy class action could have sweeping implications for the 155 hospitals across the province.

It will determine whether patients can sue a hospital for invasion of privacy. Under current legislation, health-related privacy violations are solely the domain of the privacy commissioner and only the attorney general can launch a prosecution.

Soon after the Peterborough patients commenced their privacy class action, the hospital fought to have the case thrown out, arguing the courts had no jurisdiction to hear the lawsuit.

The hospital lost its battle in Superior Court and has now taken the fight to the Ontario Court of Appeal, which has yet to rule on the case.

The original statement of claim in the case referred to one patient who worked in the health sector and went to the hospital to have an abortion in 2010 without telling her partner, according to a 2013 article in the Peterborough Examiner.

The woman was told by the hospital in July 2011 that her records had been inappropriately accessed by someone not involved in her care. She feared a hospital employee with an anti-abortion stance had looked at her file, according to the newspaper’s report of the document.

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The statement of claim has since been amended and this woman has removed herself from the privacy class action proceeding.

Michael Crystal, lawyer for the victims, told the Star he had been in touch with about a third of the 280 patients; many of them had gone to the hospital specifically to have an abortion.

Health lawyer Lonny Rosen, who has no knowledge of the case, said any anti-abortion activist accessing abortion files is a particularly concerning type of privacy violation because it involves a “wilful, intentional and possibly malicious breach of private information.”

Rosen said most intentional privacy breach cases fall into three categories: curious individuals who pry into the records of famous people; love-triangle incidents where individuals access the records of their ex-partner’s new partner; and cases where staff access records to sell them to investment companies .

Ontario’s acting privacy commissioner Brian Beamish said an investigation was launched after the hospital informed his office an employee with a pro-life viewpoint had accessed abortion files without authorization.

The commission found the hospital had “responded reasonably,” he said in a statement. It notified the affected patients, fired the employee involved and conducted a hospital-wide privacy campaign. “As a result, we determined that no further action was warranted,” he said.

Peterborough Pro-Life president Tom Mockler told the Star DeCiccio used to protest with the group outside the hospital during her lunch hour on Saturdays.

She did not come down every week, but would protest once every month or so, Mockler said. He said he was not aware DeCiccio was involved in the hospital’s privacy breach.

The Peterborough Pro-Life group has been actively fighting abortion for more than 30 years. In the late 1980s, the group took part in an anti-abortion protest in Toronto where protesters barricaded an abortion clinic’s entrance and 75 were arrested.



According to the LifeSite website, the group’s former president wrote in a 1998 newsletter: “You joined because you believe that the killing of babies, yet-to-be-born, is wrong and should not be permitted under any circumstances. Being Pro-Life means acting, not just believing.”

Peterborough Pro-Life still protests outside the hospital every Saturday. Mockler said he has not seen DeCiccio present at the protests lately.

Clarification - January 20, 2015: This article was edited from a previous version to make clear the Peterborough Pro-Life group took part in an anti-abortion protest in Toronto in the late 1980s. The protest did not take place outside the Peterborough Hospital's abortion clinic.