That's because the Morgentaler Abortion Clinic doesn't share its statistics with the government.

"Where we don't receive government funding, we're not obligated to present our numbers to the provincial government,'' explained the abortion clinic's manager, Allison Brewer.

While the Health Department does have some knowledge of how many abortions have been performed throughout the country from information complied by Statistics Canada, the information is two years old by the time it is published.

That's a problem as far as the Health Department is concerned.

"We don't have any way of tracking the number of people that seek private clinic abortions,'' said Kerry Smith, spokesman for the department.

"It would be helpful to us but I know someone who deals with statistics has asked for it (the number of abortions performed at the private clinic) and none were forthcoming.''

According to Brewer, 182 abortions were performed in the last two months of 1998 and the first two months of this year.

That's an increase of 28 abortions from the same time period a year earlier.

"I've never seen such a large increase over such as short period of time,'' said Brewer.

She's interested in understanding why more women are seeking out abortions at the private clinic now than in the past.

Brewer speculates that more women may be aware of the clinic since it moved to a central location in Fredericton last fall. She also believes physicians could be suggesting that women seek out abortions at the Morgentaler clinic instead of going through what she calls a lot of red tape to have the procedure paid for by the province.

"My theory is that the doctors don't have to work as hard to get their patients in through the hospital,'' Brewer said.

In order for women to have a provincially funded abortion performed in a hospital, it must be deemed to be medically necessary by two physicians.

Tracking what happens to a woman after she becomes pregnant is just one of many issues being discussed at a woman's health surveillance workshop in Ottawa.

The workshop began Monday and is continuing today.

Sponsored by Health Canada, 66 health-care providers and lobbyists are discussing many health issues of concern to women, including abortion.

Health Canada spokeswoman Dawn Fowler said the goal of the workshop is to find the priorities of women's health care.

"Right now, at the national level, there isn't any systematic focus on women's health as a surveillance issue,'' said Fowler.

Once the workshop is over, the information will be presented in a report to the Director General of the Laboratory Center for Disease Control.

Brewer is attending the Women's Health Surveillance Workshop and is hopeful that tracking pregnancies, miscarriages and abortions will be seen as a priority women's health care issue.

"They (Health Canada) are trying to figure out where to put the funding and where the emphasis has to be. Right now they're guessing where they have to put the emphasis,'' Brewer said.