Every month, nurse Rolanda Ryan and her team hit the road, discreetly performing abortions in rural Newfoundland. CBC/Radio-Canada accompanied her during a recent mobile clinic – in a region known as the island’s “Bible Belt.”
Text and photos by Patrick Butler, Radio-Canada
Oct. 30, 2023
“You squeeze my hand if you want,” offers the nurse. On her back with her knees in the air, the patient breathes hard. “Sixty seconds to go,” says the doctor, laser-focused in the temporary operating room, set up in less than three hours.
The doctor slowly inserts a large tube into the cervix, as the patient’s breath picks up again. “You’re doing so well,” she says. A few moments later, the aspirator, a syringe-like tool attached to the transparent tube, sucks out the embryo with a hollow click.
“All done,” says the doctor. Sighs of relief emanate from everyone in the room: from the single mother, who travelled 600 kilometres to put an end to an unexpected pregnancy, to the nurse at her side, whose devout family doesn’t know she holds the hands of rural Newfoundland women, coaching them through surgical abortion procedures like this one.
Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/mobile-abortion-clinic-newfoundland-bible-belt