VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Today, B.C.’s privacy commissioner is expected to decide whether to go ahead with an inquiry into releasing abortion stats hospital-by-hospital. It is a very controversial subject pitting the pro-life movement against hospitals.

Since a law passed back in 2001, the only abortion stats released in B.C. are provincial totals. That law was brought in to protect health care workers at specific facilities. The pro-life groups want numbers hospital by hospital arguing it is in the public interest.  

On Vancouver streets, the subject is a sensitive one. This man we’re speaking with explains, “Abortion in the first place is a very private thing so I don’t think all the statistics related to it should be made public, because it is private.”

Hospitals including Vancouver General Hospital and Kelowna General don’t want detailed stats published. Anti-abortionists say the government releases the numbers for other procedures in hospitals so they ought to do the same with abortion.