FOI Charter Challenge helps pro-abortions too

I can't write about abortion statistics. Neither can NDP MP Kennedy Stewart:

“That’s [Therapeutic Abortion Survey] been collected since 1970. And then they cancel it. They cancelled the publication, the tables, and the survey,” he said. “We should look into it more. Again, we’ve had a lot of news reports about how abortions are hard to obtain in different provinces. Once you get rid of this tracking, it makes it very, very difficult to do things like enforce the Canada Health Act.

Nobody else in this country can write or comment about abortion statistics either, because you can't write or comment on something (especially on something as political as abortion) if you don't have the facts to back you up.

The abortion statistics we do have from CIHI, are woefully inaccurate. And we know too well that Ontario has chosen to exclude and hide all Ontario abortion statistics from any and all Freedom of Information requests. BC isn't doing any better.

So our Charter Challenge will benefit even the NDP. You're welcome Kennedy Stewart.

CIHI to release 2009 abortion statistics on Oct. 28

I recently sent the following email to the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI):

"I understand from your website that the next release [of the Therapeutic Abortions Data] was supposed to be: 2009 (hospital data – spring 2011; clinic data – summer 2011).

Can you please tell me when they will be released because I couldn't find them?"

It took a few tries, but I finally got a response. This is what I was told:

"I understand you were inquiring about the availability of 2009 abortion data published by the Canadian Institute for Health Information. The public release of this data has just been confirmed for October 28. The release will include three years of data – 2007/2008/2009 – as our analytical team has done a lot of work to try to fill in at least some of the information gaps from previous years as well.

For example, the three years of data will include more comprehensive data on the total number of abortions performed in clinic as well as hospital settings.

We apologize for the outdated information on our website - and are working to have our web page refreshed to reflect the new release timeframe. Thank you for bringing this to our attention."

Keep your eyes peeled for October 28, 2011. Hopefully the statistics will be released as promised.

And more comprehensive data? Well let's see.