Friday, May 4, 2012

Revised 2010 Ontario abortions tell a sad tale

We know that CIHI recently released their 2010 abortion statistics.

Absent from the statistics were the number of abortions from Quebec.

So I asked CIHI why there was no data for Quebec, CIHI told me that:
"We receive Quebec hospital and clinic abortion data directly from the Quebec ministry (hospitals, but not clinics, are mandated to collect it). It reflects all induced abortions for patients covered by the province’s health insurance plan. As per my earlier note, we are currently working with the ministry to obtain this data."

I also asked for clarification on clinic data and which provinces accurately report clinic data. This is what CIHI told me:
"AB, MB, NL and NB have reported comprehensive clinic data. As stated in the footnotes for the published tables, BC, ON, QC have not reported comprehensive clinic data. There are no clinics in SK, NS, PEI or the territories."

Regarding hospital data CIHI confirmed that all provinces and territories:
"voluntarily participate in the DAD database. The data is collected through a secure electronic data electronic submission service."

Finally, now that we know the 2010 CIHI numbers, I was able to more accurately compare the 2010 Ontario numbers for Ontario, with the data I received from 2010 OHIP billing records.

These OHIP billing records reported that there were at least 43,997 abortions in Ontario in 2010. Plus there were 94 medical abortions in Ontario for 2010, for a new total of at least 44,091 abortions committed in Ontario in 2010.

CIHI is reporting only 28,765 abortions in Ontario for 2010.

This means that Ontario abortion statistics based on OHIP billings are higher by 53.3% than CIHI's numbers. This is much worse than what my last estimate reported, which was higher by 45.4% (I originallyy reported this as being 31% higher but that calculation was in error).

So while we're at it, let's multiply that 44,091 number of Ontario abortions for 2010 by a more realistic total cost for an abortion, which is $1,600.

(UPDATE January 15, 2017: The article linked to above is no longer on line anymore but here is the text of what it said: 
"By Paula Simons, Edmonton Journal, Published: Tuesday, October 11 2011...Cholewa says her clinic would likely bill AHS [Alberta Health services] somewhere in the neighbourhood of $1,600 for each procedure - about the same fee it charges the province to terminate a pregnancy." emphasis added
That's at least $70,545,600 Ontario taxpayers spent killing their unborn children in 2010.

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