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

FREDERICTON, New Brunswick — In a last-minute attempt to save the Maritime’s only private abortion facility from closing on July 18, a recently formed New Brunswick pro-abortion group will try to buy it and keep it open.

“It is one of the scenarios we thought might happen. We have not expected the place to just close shop and die.”

Reproductive Justice New Brunswick, a group formed in May, is calling its campaign a “huge labor of love.”

“In two days time, RJNB will launch a [fundraising] initiative in order to ensure continued access in New Brunswick – by purchasing the clinic. If the government won't do it, we will,” the group said in a statement on Facebook Tuesday.

“The health and well being of all New Brunswickers is in jeopardy – all in a country that demands reproductive justice.”

Peter Ryan, executive director of the New Brunswick Right to Life Association, told LifeSiteNews the news is “no big surprise.”

“It is one of the scenarios we thought might happen. We have not expected the place to just close shop and die.”

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Fredericton’s Morgentaler Clinic announced in April, amidst much fanfare, that it would be closing its doors in July for financial reasons.

On account of the abortion facility’s three-month notice and slick media campaign, pro-life critics denounced the move as a “ruse” to pressure the provincial government into funding abortions at the private clinic.

Despite intense pressure from the abortion lobby to have the province’s funding laws changed, the reigning Progressive Conservative government stated in May that it will continue to “not fund private clinics.”

The province’s Liberal Party, however, flip-flopped on its previous position on abortion in April, approving a resolution calling for taxpayer-funded abortion at private facilities.

Ryan said that Reproductive Justice New Brunswick is counting on the upcoming September election for a change of government policy. “This same group is polling candidates and trying to engineer the election of abortion-rights politicians,” he said.

While Ryan said it was “good news” that the abortion facility’s present owners are withdrawing, he called it “terrible news” that mothers and babies will be “targeted anew” by the new owners.

It is not clear at this point how much the abortion group must raise to buy the facility and what will happen if it cannot raise the funds.