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Clinic 554 is located at the former Morgentaler abortion center in Fredericton.Courtesy of New Brunswick Right to Life

The former Morgentaler Clinic in Fredericton, New Brunswick — closed since July — has received a name change and a new director and will reopen shortly for business as usual as a “family practice” that offers a “full-scope of reproductive care, including abortions.”

Clinic 554’s new director is Dr. Adrian Edgar, a “transguy” who specializes not only in the killing of pre-born children in their mother’s womb, but also in offering people who identify as LGBTQ “primary care services.” On top of abortion and offering a full range of contraceptive services, the clinic is “excited” to offer “transgender, gender variant, and gender non-conforming children, youth and adults” with “hormone initiations and injections.”

The facility will abort pre-born children 16 weeks and younger, and will charge between $700-$850, “depending on how far along you are.” The mill is not offering medical abortions at this time, but it “look[s] forward to performing them in the near future.”

Peter Ryan, New Brunswick Right to Life Association’s executive director, called the news “nothing short of a disaster for women’s health, and worse for the babies of our province.”

“It seems they bill themselves as providing ‘reproductive services.’ That’s a misnomer, when most of the so-called services are about preventing – or putting an end to – reproduction. Certainly when dead babies up to 16 weeks gestation are part of your menu of services, that’s as anti-reproductive as you can get,” he said.

While mainstream media is abuzz with the news, it has been downplaying the fact that the center will offer abortion services. “Former Morgentaler Clinic in Fredericton to reopen as health centre,” reads Global News’ headline, stating nothing in its opening paragraph about abortion. CBC News’ headline is similar, reading: “New health centre opening in former Morgentaler clinic.”

Ryan said that no matter what other ‘health services’ the center offers on top of abortions, “an abortion clinic is still an abortion clinic.”

The Morgentaler Clinic announced in April, amidst much fanfare, that it would be closing its doors in July for financial reasons. Pro-life critics immediately denounced the move as a “ruse” to pressure the provincial government into removing what abortion activists called barriers to reproductive health, including that abortion is not tax-funded in private clinics. While the gamble proved largely successful, with the recently elected Liberal government under Brian Gallant repealing former abortion regulations, the new regulations nevertheless fell short of funding abortions in private clinics.

Joyce Arthur, director of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, admitted that it was the Morgentaler Clinic’s closure that prompted the government to act.

“It took the shocking closure of the Morgentaler Clinic in Fredericton, the province's only abortion clinic, to finally spark change. Between the clinic's April announcement and its July closure, a vibrant new reproductive rights movement sprung to life in New Brunswick. Its young activists campaigned tirelessly to raise awareness, and lobbied the government to repeal the regulation,” she wrote in an article that appeared on Rabble last week.

Abortion activists continue to demand that the government begin funding abortions in private clinics. Reproductive Justice NB hopes to meet with Health Minister Victor Boudreau before the end of the month to discuss the matter.