Analysis of Abortion Challenges Faced by Rural Patients in Canada

This essay delves into the complexities of abortion access for rural patients in Canada, highlighting significant challenges. It begins by establishing the legality of abortion in Canada, emphasizing its status as a medical procedure under the Canada Health Act. The essay then identifies geographical distance as a primary barrier, as most abortion services are concentrated in urban centers, forcing rural women to travel long distances. It further explores issues such as limited facilities, long wait times, and the emotional, physical, and financial burdens these factors impose. The essay also addresses the stigma and potential harassment rural patients may face from healthcare professionals, as well as limitations in service quality and government funding. It concludes by underscoring the systemic and structural challenges that persist, despite the legality of abortion, and calls for improved healthcare structures to address the needs of women seeking abortion services in rural Canada.

Running head: ABORTION CHALLENGES FACED BY RURAL PATIENTS
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Abortion Challenges Faced by Rural Patients
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Abortion Challenges Faced by Rural Patients
Abortion in Canada is one of the legal issues that are allowed in Canada at any stage of
pregnancy as regulated by the Canada Health Act. The women in Canada enjoy free abortion
rights since they are not limited to doing abortion in any way. This implies that as a Canadian
woman, abortion is one of the things that can be procured at any point in life with specific
healthcare centers being designed for the abortion process. According to research, nearly 31% of
Canadian women have at least one induced abortion in their lifetime (Norman, Soon, Maughn, &
Dressler, 2013). The need for abolishing the penal code on abortion is driven by the fact that
death rates in the country used to be high due to illegal and unsafe abortions that used to take
place especially in the late 20th century. The need to decriminalize abortion came as a result of
the ramification of R. v. Morgentaler where the Supreme Court found that criminalization of
abortion violated section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by infringing on a woman's
right to "life, liberty and security of person. This means that abortion is supposed to be treated
like any other medical procedure that is supposed to be held by the Canada Health Act.
According to Norman, Soon, Maughn, & Dressler (2013) the biggest barrier to accessing
abortion in Canada is the geographical distance that rural people face. In most parts of the
country, rural people face this challenge since most of the hospitals that provide the required
abortion services are located in urban centers. This implies that the reproductive health needs of
the women are not met since they are supposed to travel long distances on such of these services.
For example, women living in rural areas suffer from this burden since both private and public
clinics are located at distant places (Norman, et al., 2016). This means that the women are forced
to travel out of their provinces to procure the services. On the other hand, the facilities that they
seek to access have long waits because the ones that offer the service are limited and thus women

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have to wait for long before receiving the services. The outcome is an increased emotion,
physical and financial burden that the women in Canadian rural areas face.
Rural areas abortion patients have also reported being harassed and stigmatized by the
professionals who offer the services that the patients seek. According to most rural facilities are
overpopulated with patients and thus the clinicians who work in such facilities have a different
response to abortion. The patients are harassed and sometimes the medical process used is not fit
for the patients (Sethna & Doull, 2013). In this case, there are different levels of stress and
operation scheduling room challenges that make it difficult to meet the needs of the patient. For
example, the fact that abortion is carried out in operating room settings limits the delivery of the
service to patients. Patients who seek abortion services in rural areas face these challenge
because the professionals are limited with the scope of study and the areas that they work in.
Thus the providers face the challenge of meeting the wellbeing needs of the patient since the
process of carrying out an abortion requires the practitioner to give emotional and psychological
support to the patient that requires them to assist patients in overcoming the challenge that the
patients go through after carrying out an abortion.
Kotlier (2016) suggests that another challenge that rural patients face is access to quality
abortion services on facilities. Since private facilities are located in highly concentrated urban
areas, then it means that rural people rely heavily on public health centers. This means that rural
areas rely more on public health facilities for procuring abortion services. The government
funding in healthcare facilities is limited since the government does not provide enough funding
for buying enough drugs that can be used in the process. For example, the lack of funding in
rural areas forces clinicians to use general anesthesia while guidelines for expert organizations in

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Canada and globally suggest that local anesthesia with or without sedation is the best option for
use in simple procedures like abortion.
Therefore, abortion challenges in rural areas exist in Canada since there are many
challenges that people face in the rural areas that they live in. The challenges are both systemic
and structural since they are based on the rural challenges that they experience in their facilities.
Thus despite the fact that abortion is legal to be carried out in Canada, there are healthcare
challenges that people face since the government has not put enough structures in place to
address the challenges that women who seek to access abortion services face.

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References
Kotlier, D. B. (2016). Accessibility of Abortion in Canada: Geography as a Barrier to Access in
Ontario and Quebec. Inquiries Journal, 8(6).
Norman, W. V., Guilber, E. R., Okpaleke, C., Hayden, A. S., Lichtenber, S., Paul, M., . . . Jones,
H. (2016). Abortion health services in Canada-Results of a 2012 national survey.
Canadian Family Physician, 62, 211-220.
Norman, W. V., Soon, J. A., Maughn, N., & Dressler, J. (2013). Barriers to Rural Induced
Abortion Services in Canada: Findings of the British Columbia Abortion Providers
Survey (BCAPS). PLOS One, 5(3), 1-10.
Sethna, C., & Doull, M. (2013). Spatial disparities and travel to freestanding abortion clinics in
Canada. Women’s Studies International Forum, 38, 52-62.