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HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, September 25, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — Nova Scotia will offer the abortion pill for free in November as part of the Liberal government’s effort to widen access to abortion.

The government is also dropping the requirement women have a doctor referral for abortions at the Queen Elizabeth II hospital in Halifax, minister for status of women Kelly Regan announced Friday.

The province is setting up an abortion hotline for Nova Scotia women to make appointments for abortion.

“We’re supporting more choice for women when it comes to their reproductive health,” Regan said in a press release.

Mifegymiso, formerly RU-486, has been available in Canada since January and costs from $300 to $450.

In November, Nova Scotia will cover the cost of the abortion pill for women who have a valid health card and a prescription. 

The province expects to pay $150,000 to $250,000 for the abortion pill annually, says the press release.

The two-drug combination includes Mifepristone, which blocks progesterone and essentially starves the baby to death in utero, and Misoprostol, which is taken 24 to 48 hours later and induce labor to expel the dead baby.

Nova Scotia was recently targeted by the abortion lobby and media as having the worst abortion access in Canada.

The Canadian Press reported in mid-August that Nova Scotia women face long wait times for abortion. That was followed by an op-ed in the Huffington Post by Sandeep Prasad, executive director of Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights, claiming “Nova Scotia’s rules desperately need an update.”

The response of health minister Randy Delorey was to agree the province’s regulation of abortion was “out of step” and to ask his ministry look into ways to improve access, the Canadian Press then reported.

The ministry turned to abortionist Lianne Yoshida, medical director of the abortion unit at Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, who told Canadian Press that provincial health officials asked her for proposals on streamlining the abortion process.

But the QEII “currently provide[s] same-day appointments for women who require an abortion service,” Kim Munroe, the Nova Scotia Health Authority’s director of ambulatory care, told the Star on Friday.

New Brunswick’s Liberal government was the first province to offer universal access to the abortion pill, with Alberta’s NDP and Ontario Liberals to follow suit.

Quebec’s Liberal Health Minister Gaetan Barrette has promised the abortion pill for free in the fall.

Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and British Columbia also have included the abortion pill under their provincial drug plans, making it virtually free for women on social assistance.

Pro-life groups have long warned the abortion pill, lethal for the unborn child, is harmful to the mother.

Indeed, when Health Canada approved the abortion pill in August 2015, it stated the abortion pill was a risk to women, noting in a regulation: “Rare cases of fatalities were reported.”

It confirmed that on September 4, 2001, a “death was reported in a clinical trial with mifepristone and misoprostol, the active ingredients in Mifegymiso (RU-486) in Canada,” LifeSiteNews reported then.

Health Canada initially required abortion drug labelling warn women not to use it unless they had access to emergency medical care, and that it be taken “under the supervision” of a physician because of the risk of internal bleeding.

But under lobbying from pharmacy groups, pro-abortion groups and doctors, Health Canada subsequently issued a “clarification” that a doctor need not be present when a woman takes the abortion pill, LifeSiteNews reported in March 2017.

A U.S. FDA risk assessment report gathered data on 1.5 million women from September 2000 to April 2011 who used Mifepristone, or RU-486. 

It documented 2,207 reported cases of “adverse events” from the abortion drug, including 14 deaths, 612 hospitalizations, 58 ectopic pregnancies, 339 cases of blood loss requiring transfusions, and 256 cases of infections, of which 48 cases were considered severe.

Campaign Life launched an educational outreach in April 2017 #RU486RUCrazy documenting the dangers of the drug.

The political decision to fund the abortion pill is one that “betrays women,” Johanne Brownrigg, Campaign Life Coalition’s Ottawa lobbyist, told LifeSiteNews in an earlier interview.

“It’s disingenuous to pretend that this is an answer to a difficult pregnancy,” she said. “This drug kills the child and can seriously harm the mother.”

Moreover, “there is a finite amount of money that can be spent on healthcare, and this is not healthcare,” Brownrigg added.