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Document
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PO-1747
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File #
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PA-980336-1
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Institution/HIC
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Ministry of Health
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Summary
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NATURE OF THE APPEAL: The Ministry of Health (now the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care) (the Ministry) received a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act ) for access to the following information: the number of obstetricians/gynaecologists billing the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) in each of 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1997; the number of obstetricians/gynaecologists billing OHIP for one or more therapeutic abortions in each of the years listed above; and the number of therapeutic abortions billed to OHIP in each of the years listed above. The Ministry located three records, each one responsive to one part of the request. The Ministry described the records as follows: Record 1 Distribution of Ontario Licensed Physicians By OHIP Payment Level and Specialty Record 2 Obstetricians/Gynaecologists Billing Fee Schedule Codes S752 and S785 Record 3 Fee Schedule Code Analysis of S752 and S785 "Therapeutic Abortion" Codes. The Ministry has further explained that Record 2 is a report which lists, by the requested fiscal years, the number of Obstetricians/Gynaecologists who billed OHIP under two "therapeutic abortion" codes, and Record 3 is a report which states the total number of "therapeutic abortion" claims paid in each of the requested fiscal years. The Ministry granted partial access to Record 1, stating that the remaining portions of the record were not responsive to the request since they relate to specialties other than Obstetrics/Gynaecology. The Ministry denied access in full to Records 2 and 3 on the basis of the exemptions at section 14 (law enforcement) and 20 (danger to safety or health) of the Act . With respect to section 14, the Ministry stated: … Clauses 14(1)(e) [danger to life or physical safety] and 14(1)(i) [danger to security of a building] have been used to support [the section 14] exemption … In exercising the discretion to exempt this portion of the record the possibility that the disclosure of abortion related statistics may endanger the safety of service providers was considered. With respect to section 20, the Ministry stated: … As mentioned above, the disclosure of abortion related statistics may endanger the safety of service providers. The requester, now the appellant, appealed the Ministry's decision to deny access to Records 2 and 3. The appellant does not take issue with the Ministry's decision regarding Record 1. In his letter of appeal, the appellant stated: … The access request was specifically framed to avoid such situations by not requesting information for individual communities but rather the entire province as a whole, and not requesting information which could identify any individual. No information is sought other than raw historical statistical information and the ministry's suggestion that province-wide numbers could lead to harm to an individual is absurd. I sent a Notice of Inquiry setting out the issues in the appeal to the appellant and the Ministry. I received representations from both parties. DISCUSSION: INTRODUCTION The Ministry provides background information relating generally to the abortion issue before providing specific representations on the section 14(1) and 20 exemptions: Few issues have the staying power of the debate on abortion. In what has been termed "the increasingly deadly abortion debate", both sides, Pro Life and Pro Choice, continue to polarize society with noisy and intimidating public protests, sometimes requiring the forceful separation by police of opposite sides in abortion demonstrations. Attached to these representations are a number of recent media reports that illustrate the frightening context in which the providers of therapeutic abortion services must pursue their work. The fear generated by opponents of abortion extends to the families of providers, as well as to their patients, their staff and co-workers. Hospitals and free-standing clinics themselves are under threat, requiring constant security measures to be in place. The government's and the ministry's position is that abortion services are medically necessary and must continue to be as equally accessible as possible for women across the province. This accords with the principles of the Canada Health Act , and requires that the provision of abortions services must be defended from any threatened disruption. The violent acts in which the more extreme participants in the abortion debate increasingly engage include emotional and physical harassment, death threats, and attempted and realized murder. Such acts have forced many physicians to stop providing abortion services because of concerns for their physical safety and that of their families. This in turn has placed in serious jeopardy fulfilment of the goal of providing access to abortions sufficient to meet demand. The ministry therefore views with grave concern the disclosure of any information which could result in individual physicians and/or medical facilities declining to provide abortion services. It is equally concerned when information is disclosed that could result in harassment and intimidation of women seeking abortion services, services which are their right. In years past the ministry's annual statistics on total numbers of abortions provided in the province, or numbers of providers, would have been, and were, disclosed as routinely as statistics on many other OHIP-insured services. Today, even such overall indications of how few or how many abortions are being performed are enough to inflame passions on one or other side of the abortion debate. Pro Choice groups use the figures to argue for an increase in the availability of aborti
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Legislation
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FIPPA
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14(1)(e)
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14(1)(i)
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Section 20
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Subject Index
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Signed by
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David Goodis
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Published
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Jan 26, 2000
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2013
Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. All Rights Reserved.
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