January 28 marks the 34th anniversary of legal abortion in Canada. On that date, the Supreme Court struck down the 1969 abortion law and declared abortion a legal medical procedure like any other. Known as the Morgentaler decision, after the heroic doctor Henry Morgentaler who opened illegal abortion clinics in Quebec in the 1970s and Ontario in the early 1980s, successfully challenging the law.
On January 22, 1973, the famed Roe v. Wade case in the Supreme Court of the United States effectively legalized abortion. After refusing to strike down a restrictive Texas law allowing citizens to sue anyone seeking, counselling or providing an abortion, the majority conservative U.S. court will soon decide whether a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks, will be upheld. Roe v. Wade will, in effect, be struck down with devastating impacts on women across the country; at least 12 states, including Texas and Mississippi, will trigger laws that automatically ban abortion and other Republican-led states will no doubt follow.
It is important to consider how this will affect us in Canada.
In the U.S., abortion rights are a political dividing line. If you are a Democrat, you are pro-choice. If Republican, you are pro-life. Polls in U.S. show 49 percent of population consider themselves “pro-choice” and 48 percent “pro-life.” In Canada a similar poll finds 62 percent “pro-choice” and 13 percent “pro-life.” More significantly, 75 percent of people in Canada support the present abortion laws. Still, I think we should not be complacent
While legal abortion is not threatened, anti-abortion groups never stopped organizing. In the recent past, they tried to put on a more acceptable face, even calling themselves feminists. Yet, they continue to harass women at clinics and set up so called crisis pregnancy centres where they lure young women with the promise of help, only to convince them not to have an abortion.
Anti-abortion groups continue to organize inside the Conservative Party. Last year, 82 MPs voted to restrict abortion rights. That is a majority of the caucus. If the Conservatives ever win a federal majority government, there is little question that there will be more attempts to restrict access, especially if the leader themselves is anti-choice.
Until now, Conservative Prime Ministers like Stephen Harper stayed away from attempts to recriminalize abortion because of popular support for reproductive rights across party lines — established because of the broad pro-choice movement starting with the Abortion Caravan in 1970 and consecutive founding of abortion clinics across the country. But after the next federal election and Covid as the far-right gets stronger in Canada, popular support for abortion rights could fade. In America, individual states reduced access to abortions despite the long-standing right to choose, established by the Supreme Court. In Canada, the anti-choice movement might follow a similar strategy.
There are already serious access problems. New Brunswick has only one abortion clinic and the provincial government still refuses to cover the procedure. Joyce Arthur, Executive Director of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, ARCC, summarizes the access problems this way:
“we still need to work… improving access to abortion and sexual healthcare, especially for marginalized and rural populations. Access is generally more difficult for folks living in rural areas and the North, and in more conservative provinces. Many people still have to travel to services, which of course has been more difficult during the pandemic. Telemedicine and the abortion pill have helped a lot, but there’s still not nearly enough doctors or pharmacies who provide this drug. Plus taking Mifegymiso [the abortion pill] is only possible up to nine weeks, otherwise you need an aspiration or surgical abortion. Most hospitals don’t provide that care (maybe one in six) and clinics are located only in larger cities.”
Another concern is the stubborn stigma around abortion. Working in an abortion clinic or being known as a doctor that performs abortions still leads to harassment. While the federal government is strongly and publicly pro-choice and promises to improve access, it has not followed through with actions. There remains a need for pro-choice advocacy groups like ARCC and the Action Canada for Sexual and Reproductive Health. ARCC has successfully fought every anti-abortion private member’s bill since 2006. But the powerful movement myself and other pro-choice advocates were part in the 1980s around the Morgentaler clinics, is no longer mobilized.
Yet, I am hopeful that if there is an attempt to seriously challenge abortion rights in Canada, we will be in a position to fight back.
When we organized to defend Toronto’s Morgentaler clinic in 1981, we learned from the American feminists who assumed Roe v. Wade solved the problem and let the anti-abortion forces get strong before they fought back. We cannot make the same mistake now. The 1980s pro-choice movement was one of the most powerful and successful social movements we have ever had in Canada. On this anniversary of the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in Canada, all of us must be ready to mobilize against any threat to the reproductive rights that we have won.
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