Wellness Within Celebrates End of Mission Service Agreement at Antigonish Memorial Regional Hospital
Wellness Within applauds Nova Scotia Health’s announcement that St. Martha’s Regional Hospital in Antigonish will become Antigonish Memorial Regional Hospital. This name change comes following the conclusion of the Mission Assurance Agreement with the Sisters of St. Martha and the Department of Health and Wellness, and will come into effect October 1, 2026.
The Mission Assurance Agreement has long restricted the type of healthcare patients could access at the hospital — willing and able abortion care providers could not serve patients in their community and patients seeking medical assistance in dying (MAiD) could not receive this on-site. While a policy change in 2019 allowed for patient transfer to the affiliated St. Martha’s Centre for MAiD, we are hopeful that the end of this agreement will allow patients to receive dignified healthcare at their regional hospital.
These changes leave us optimistic for the future. Wellness Within had been preparing for a constitutional challenge to the restrictions on abortion services at St. Martha’s Regional Hospital, and we are pleased that this is no longer necessary. We look forward to the expansion of reproductive healthcare to include contraception and abortion, and the removal of any restrictions on MAiD.
Wellness Within is a volunteer-based registered non-profit organization that serves women, transgender, and nonbinary people who have experienced criminalization and are pregnant or have young children in Nova Scotia, part of the unceded and unsurrendered ancestral territory of the Mi'kmaq people.
Wellness Within supports people through the full spectrum of reproductive health experience; facilitates workshops and education sessions; develops resource materials; and advocates for reproductive justice issues.
Contact: Martha Paynter, Director of Research: martha.paynter@unb.ca or (902)292-7082.
