VGH is the first hospital in B.C. to request a bubble zone. The legislation, upheld by B.C. Supreme Court in 1996, bars anti-abortion protesters from specified areas around abortion clinics. It is currently in use only at Vancouver's two free-standing clinics. Abortions are performed at 37 B.C. hospitals.
People feel they're being harassed and they complain to staff.
The staff also feel uneasy with demonstrators outside. Martin said that of the 14,000 procedures performed at the hospital's surgical day-care centre, about 2,000 are abortions. He said the centre, located one block from the main hospital building, attracts two or three demonstrations a month. And doctors are obviously ill at ease, especially since the Dr. Romalis incident. In November 1994, Dr. Garson Romalis, a Vancouver gynecologist, was shot in his home.