Abortion patients, staff, unhappy about protesters

Vancouver General Hospital wants a "bubble zone" around its surgical day care to protect patients from anti-abortion demonstrators.

VGH is the first hospital in B.C. to request a bubble zone. The legislation, upheld by B.C. Supreme Court in 1996, bars anti-abortion protesters from specified areas around abortion clinics. It is currently in use only at Vancouver's two free-standing clinics.

Abortions are performed at 37 B.C. hospitals.

"We don't think it's appropriate to have patients going through that harassment," said Murray Martin, president of VGH. "People feel they're being harassed and they complain to staff. The staff also feel uneasy with demonstrators outside."

Martin said that of the 14,000 procedures performed at the hospital's surgical day-care centre, about 2,000 are abortions.

He said the centre, located one block from the main hospital building, attracts two or three demonstrations a month.

"It's ongoing," Martin said. "And doctors are obviously ill at ease, especially since the Dr. Romalis incident."

In November 1994, Dr. Garson Romalis, a Vancouver gynecologist, was shot in his home. Although no one has been charged, Romalis believes an anti-abortionist was responsible for the shooting.

Martin said the hospital made its request to the B.C. health ministry two months ago and is awaiting a reply.

Ted Gerk of the Pro-Life Society of B.C. said a bubble-zone would be tough to enforce at a large hospital.

"We'd be surprised if they end up getting it," he said.

"It would be almost impossible to enforce because of all the people who go into the hospital. That's a huge area. It's not like a clinic."

Health ministry spokeswoman Carol Swan said the request was under review and "not at the approval stage yet." If it's approved by the ministry, the request must be endorsed by the cabinet.

A spokeswoman for the Elizabeth Bagshaw Clinic said the bubble-zone law has been effective in protecting patients as well as allowing protesters to express themselves.

"We also support Vancouver General in its application," she said. "It has endured its share of harassment."

Vancouver police Insp. Murray Day said bubble zones have cut calls to police about blocked doors at clinics.

"We do respond, on an infrequent basis, to complaints, but it's not an over-consuming problem," he said.

HISTORY OF THE ZONES

B.C.'s Access to Abortion Services Act was passed in September 1995, after Vancouver's Dr. Garson Romalis was shot.

In January 1996, a provincial court judge struck down key parts of the law when staying charges against an anti-abortion protester.

The government appealed, and in October 1996, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Mary Saunders ruled that the right of a woman to seek an abortion in private outweighs a person's right to freedom of expression.

The bubble zone legislation can keep protesters up to 50 metres away from facilities that provide abortions.