Inaccuracy rife since reporting not mandatory
By Agnieszka Krawczynski
The B.C. Catholic



The latest abortion statistics seem to show a decreasing number of women ending the lives of their unborn children.

In December, the Canadian Institute for Health Information published a document showing 81,897 abortions were reported in Canada in 2014.

At first glance, it looks like a steady drop from 82,869 in 2013 and 83,708 in 2012, but an Ontario activist who has been seeking accurate abortion statistics from the government for years has strong criticism of CIHI’s reports.

“It’s so inaccurate,” Patricia Maloney told The B.C. Catholic over the phone. “The data’s there, but really, is it any good?”

She explained that while it is mandatory for hospitals to report their number of abortions, it is voluntary for clinics. “On top of that, we also know that abortions done in doctors’ offices are not reported. None of them.”

The report itself admits that clinics submit statistics voluntarily and that there are gaps in the numbers. Footnotes say, “For 2014, clinic data for British Columbia is incomplete and clinic data for New Brunswick is absent.”

Maloney points out other holes in the data: Quebec doesn’t break down the numbers by the age of women seeking abortions, and clinics across the map are completely silent about gestational ages of the unborn children and the number of previous births or abortions the women have had.

She’s convinced clinic numbers are seriously underreported and the numbers of total abortions are, therefore, inaccurate.

A few years ago, Maloney obtained Ontario abortion statistics for 2010. When she compared them to CIHI’s 2010 report, she “discovered that Ontario’s abortions were underreported by 44 per cent.”

Maloney believes CIHI’s numbers for 2014 could also be that far off. She hasn’t been able to verify this with more recent abortion numbers since, in 2012, the Ontario government amended the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to exclude all information about abortion.

Natalie Sonnen, executive director of LifeCanada, agrees that the number of abortions has likely not dropped.

“This is really a lot of hogwash that the numbers are going down. We’re usually reporting around 100,000.”

She added that even if there are fewer abortions in hospitals and clinics, it doesn’t indicate there are less pregnant women in crisis situations.

“There’s still the morning-after pill. There is RU-486,” an abortion drug Health Canada approved in the summer. These pills, which women can take at home or in a doctor’s office, go under CIHI’s radar.

Maloney, with the help of the Association for Reformed Political Action, is in the midst of a lawsuit to make Ontario abortion statistics available through freedom of information requests again.

“Governments are supposed to be accountable to taxpayers. I am a taxpayer. I could find out know how much you spend on heart attacks, or knee surgery,” she said.

Statistics such as the ages of the women who seek abortions or the amount of money the government contributes should also be publicly available.

“There are a lot of corollary reasons to know about abortion. Are abortions going down in the country? Are they going up? If they are going up, who is having them? Are young people having them? If it’s a health care issue, it should be transparent,” she said.

“Maybe we can help women try other methods of dealing with an unplanned pregnancy. Maybe we should put more money in crisis pregnancy centres. How do we deal with an issue when we don’t know what the scope of the issue is?”

Maloney blogs at www.run-with-life.blogspot.ca.