Recent Articles

Abortion in Canada

Canada is one of only a few countries in the world with no laws limiting abortion rights in any way. While some non-legal obstacles exist, abortion access in Canada is among the freest in the world.

Polls continue to show that a large majority of Canadians believe abortion should remain legal. For example, in a poll conducted by the National Post in November 2002, 78% of respondents answered "yes" to the question "Should women have complete freedom on their decision to have an abortion?"

About 100,000 abortions are performed in Canada every year. Approximately 90% of abortions are performed in the first trimester, with just 2-3% performed after 16 weeks.

Legality

The Canadian courts have established that a fetus has no inherent right to life and no legal protection as a person until born alive. Additionally a woman and her fetus are considered one and the same and the woman's interests come first.

Access

Abortions in Canada are provided on demand and available free of charge (as with all medical procedures) in hospitals across the county. Abortion funding for hospitals comes directly from the federal government, and the 1/3 of hospitals which provide them currently perform 2/3 of abortions in the country, the rest being performed by public and private clinics.

Obstacles to access

While the provinces are additionally required by the federal government to fully fund abortion clinics, Quebec and Nova Scotia provide only limited funding, while New Brunswick and Manitoba provide no funding for clinics.

Access in rural and northern areas, and especially in the maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island, is often restricted by the lack of nearby facilities, requiring women to travel long distances (often at their own expense) to obtain an abortion. Some maritime hospitals refuse to perform abortions on out-of-province patients, in contravention of the portability requirement of the Canada Health Act. This can be especially troublesome for women in PEI, where no facilities currently perform abortions.

Additionally, as with all surgical procedures, a doctor's referral is required, which may be difficult to obtain in conservative areas. It has also been noted that the number of Canadian medical schools that give instruction in abortion procedures is decreasing, which could potentially create a shortfall in medical personnel skilled in this area.

History

Abortion was completely banned in Canada in 1869. As in other countries illegal abortions were still performed, leading to the deaths of many women every year.

The movement to liberalize Canada's abortion laws began in the 1960's. Then Justice Minister Pierre Trudeau introduced a bill in 1967 that provided for abortions when the health of the mother was in danger as determined by a three-doctor hospital committee. This same bill also legalized homosexuality and contraception, and would be the subject of one of Trudeau's most famous lines: "The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation."

Many felt the law didn't go far enough, and that the rulings of the three-doctor committees were inconsistent and often untimely (taking perhaps several weeks). Montreal doctor Henry Morgentaler, not wanting to break the law, initially turned away women seeking abortions from his practice. Soon, however, he began performing safe abortions in his clinic contrary to the law, and in 1973 stated publicly that he had performed 5000 abortions without the permission of the three-doctor-committees, even going so far as to videotape himself performing operations.

The Quebec government took Dr. Morgentaler to court twice, and both times juries refused to convict him despite his outright admission that he had performed many abortions. The government appealed against one acquittal and the appeal court overturned the jury's verdict. Dr. Morgentaler was sentenced to 18 months in jail. Public outcry over Dr. Morgentaler's treatment caused the federal government to pass a law preventing appeal courts from overturning a jury's not guilty verdicts. Having a government take exceptional steps to jail Morgentaler was especially unpalatable because he is a Holocaust survivor. Dr. Morgentaler was again acquitted at a third trial, causing the Quebec government to declare the law unenforceable.

Dr. Morgentaler's struggle prompted a nation-wide movement to reform Canada's abortion laws. In 1970, 35 women chained themselves to the parliamentary gallery in the House of Commons, closing parliament for the first time in Canadian history.

Upon his release from prison in Quebec Dr. Morgentaler decided to challenge the law in other provinces, and over the next 15 years he opened and operated abortion clinics across the country in direct violation of the law. Following a fourth jury acquittal in 1984 the federal government appealed the decision and the appeals court reversed the decision. Dr. Morgentaler in turn appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada, which in a stunning 1988 decision declared the entirety of the country's abortion law unconstitutional.

In its decision (Morgentaler et. al. v. Her Majesty The Queen [1988] (1 S.C.R. 30) at 37), the Court stated:

"The right to liberty... guarantees a degree of personal autonomy over important decisions intimately affecting his or her private life. ... The decision whether or not to terminate a pregnancy is essentially a moral decision and in a free and democratic society, the conscience of the individual must be paramount to that of the state."

The court did, however, encourage the government to introduce a new and improved abortion law, which it attempted to do in 1989. This new bill, which threatened doctors with a two-year jail term if they approved an abortion when the mother's health was not in danger, was widely and loudly condemned by the country's doctors. While the bill was approved by the House of Commons, it was defeated in the Senate by a tie vote. This failure prompted the government to give up on legislating abortion entirely, leading to the unique situation of Canada having no abortion law whatsoever.

Politics

During the 2004 election campaign the issues of Abortion was raised several times in regards to the new Conservative Party of Canada. While the party denied any plans or intetions regarding abortion, their party's perceived openess to legislation on abortion rights was used by the Liberal party during the campaign as a wedge issue.

Pro-life movement

Some Canadians strongly oppose abortion. They include members of the Campaign Life Coalition, REAL Women of Canada, and some members of the Catholic Church. While no mainstream political party in Canada explicitly opposes abortion availability the Conservative Party of Canada is often supported by pro-life Canadians.