Local counselling called minimal

Abortion access panned

ACCESS TO contraception and
abortion services nceds improve-
ment outside the Lower Main-
land, according {0 a report
released by a provincial health
ministry’s task force.

Called Realizing Choices, the
report is also critical of ihe quali-
ty of abortion services available
to women in B.C.,

While the report praises St.
Mary’s. Hospital in -Sechelt. and
Vancouver Island’s Cumberland
Health Centre for providing high-
quality abortion services, the ser-
vice at most other B.C. hospitals
"fails to measure up.”

To improve abortion services,
the task force report recommends
that abortions be performed under
local . rather that general
anesthelic and patients be: pro-
vided with pre- and post-abortion
counselling.

The use of general anesthesia
during the abortion procedure in-
creases the risk to the patients,
said task force: member Dr.
Denise Werker.

“When you put a woman under
general anesthesia, the uterus
muscles relax, increasing the risk
of perforating the uterine wall
‘and allowing more blood loss,’’
sald Werker.

An abortion under local
anesthelic is also Icss stressful

psychologically than under gener-

al anesthetic, Werker added.
“From a psychological aspect,
a woman retains more control

with a local because they are
aware of what’s happening and
can deal with the grieving process
betler,"’ said Werker. “In all
respecls, complications of abor-
tion with local. anesthesia are
fewer.’’

But Dr. Philip Lin, Mills
Memorial Hospital’s « chief-of-
staff and anesthetist, said the
report’s” support for local
“anesthetics is unfounded. ~~~

‘If you administer appropriate
general anesthetic, it makes no

Hush-hush meeting held

NORTHERN REPRESENTA-
TIVES altended a meeting with a
B.C. health task force last Sep-
tember in Prince George to dis-
cuss improving quality and access
to contraception and abortion ser-
vices in B.C... |

But the health ministry cannot
release the names of those local
people because all participants at
the. mecting were guaranteed
anonymity,

*““We can’t release the names of
people involved because we don’t
want to create problems for these
people,’ said task force member
Dr. Denise Werker. ‘‘In‘light of
the hostile climate, people needed
to feel safe in order to have an
open and honest discussion about
these issues.”’

Dr. Werker said 30 people were

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difference to the muscle ten-
sion,”? said Lin. ‘‘The difference
is that it’s cheaper for the minis-
iry because physicians can give

_ locals and they don’t have to pay
for anesthetist to administer the

general.’’ .
. He said most women receive
general’ anesthesia during abor-
tions al Mills Memorial,

**Parily, general is used because

of patient: preference-and: parily~

because most practitioner’s in
town don’t have the training to do

invited to the September 11-12,
1993 meeting to discuss how to
improve abortion services and
availibility to contraception.

“The question is not whether
these services should be provided
-~ is how to make them better,”
Dr. Werker said. ‘*Pro-lifers were
not invited to the meetings be-
cause ‘they have no ‘interest. in
promoting access so what would
be the value of their input?”

Only people ‘‘sympathetic’’ to
increasing access were invited to
the meeting,’ including
physicians, health care workers
and women’s groups, she said.

Hospilals were only invited if
task farce members knew them to —
be pro-choice.

“In some communities, hospi-
tals were not invited because they

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local anesthesia,”’ Dr. Lin said.

Because there is presently no
obsictrician or gynecologist. in
Terrace, he said ‘thal a minimal
amount of abortion counselling is
available for women.

“There is probably not an aw-
ful lot of pre- and post-abortion
counselling other than from pub-
: lic Health workers,”’ said Dr, Lin.
“Tn the ~ hospital-~ ‘right ~ now
counselling: is - fairly

rudimentary,’”

were not seen to be particularly

sympathclic or were not providers

of the service,’? Dr. Werker said.
Mills Memorial chief executive

task force’s existence. .
“I personally . wasn’t ap-
proached by these people,’’ said

Leisinger. ‘I don’t know .whetker 7

that says something about their
perception of us or not,”’
While he believes that the con-

people from all sides of the issue,
Leisinger said he understands

why the task force promised |"
" anonymity to participants.

“I can certainly see that, in or-
der to generale open and
forthright discussion, people need
to be anonymous,”’ he said.

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