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Elizabeth Crouchman was born and bred in New Brunswick, and is proud of her province of 800,000 souls: Strong family values. Small-town attitude. Traditional.

Ms. Crouchman, president of New Brunswick Right to Life, says this is not a province like the others. Social-issues discussions largely over in other parts of the country, at least in terms of official discourse, are still very much under debate here.

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Increasingly, New Brunswick is under pressure to widen access to abortion and recognize gay rights. But social conservatives remain powerful, and New Brunswick is not ceding easily.

“It would be lovely to think that we are traditional thinkers here,” says Ms. Crouchman. “But unfortunately we often feel like we’re outcast and that we are out of touch, and it’s not necessarily true.”

The Morgentaler Clinic in Fredericton, the province’s only private abortion clinic, performed its last abortion Friday, its lease expired and provincial funding refused.