Itâe(TM)s been six months since the landmark 20th anniversary of abortion legalization in this great country of ours.

Twenty years and six months ago, Dr. Henry Morgentaler won the Supreme Court of Canada case that struck down the abortion law, giving women the legal right to decide whatâe(TM)s best for their own bodies.

So I thought it was an important time to take a good look around through my pro-choice lens and ask: how are we doing, Canada?

I know that personally, as a reproductive rights activist, Iâe(TM)ve had a busy year defending choice across North America. I know that Iâe(TM)ve attended more events to protect the right to choose than events to honour it, and there have been a few notable forks thrown in our road of hard-won reproductive freedom that weâe(TM)ve had to rally and fight back.

One of those worth mentioning would certainly be Bill C-484, the âeoeUnborn Victims of Crimeâe Act that threatens to give fetuses personhood status, as a backdoor way towards repealing abortion rights. Weâe(TM)ve also seen Bill C-537 tabled, which would essentially permit a doctor to withhold treatment and/or referrals (to abortion doctors for example) based on religious beliefs.

I asked one of my fearless leaders, Patricia LaRue, Executive Director at Canadians for Choice, what she thinks: âeoeThere has been good news and bad news in terms of access to abortion services in 2008. Since the launch of Reality Check in April 2007, some hospitals have stopped performing abortions because providers have retired, hospitals have merged or because hospitals have closed down leaving a void of services in the region.

Some health professionals still think they have the right to give inaccurate information about pregnancy options in order to influence a womanâe(TM)s decision. Just the other day, staff at Canadians for Choice spoke to a young woman who found out she was pregnant and who went to a health clinic to ask information about abortion services. The nurse at the clinic showed her a clothes hanger and told her that is what they would use on her to perform an abortion, and she might bleed to death.âe

And whatâe(TM)s with this negative media frenzy over Dr. Morgentalerâe(TM)s appointment to the Order of Canada?

This man has risked his life to guarantee the Canadian population a sound family planning option to which every one of us is indebted. You can look around the world at the estimated 80,000 women who die every year due to complications from botched, illegal abortions to be truly grateful for that. He absolutely deserves any form of recognition for his valour that comes his way, and we all have a legacy of a pro-choice movement that helped him give us the right to choose to carry on.

There have been significant positive strides made this year, as well, specifically in re-engaging the younger generation to mobilize for exactly what the previous generation fought for so relentlessly.

I actually got to present to a few groups of high school students this Spring, where I was asked to recount the history of abortion rights in Canada and explain what being pro-choice is really all about. The reactions I received were not only of gratitude and support, but also of shock that no one had ever bothered to tell them any of this information.

Tonya Kent, 23, echoes this sentiment: âeoeI’ve always been pro-choice, but attending the 20th anniversary celebration in Ottawa with fellow revolutionary feminists I realized how hard these activists worked to get the choice for us and I was inspired to work just as hard to keep our right so that their work isn’t in vain.âe

The Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) took an unprecedented move this past May and successfully passed a motion that is worth reading in its entirety. It reads:

âeoeBe it resolved that member locals [of the CFS] that refuse to allow anti-choice organizations access to their resources and space be supported. And further, be it resolved that a pro-choice organization kit be created that may include materials such as a fact sheet, buttons, contact information for local pro-choice organizations and research on anti-choice organizations and the conservative think-tanks that fund them.âe Go CFS!

In other good news, Patricia advised me that Quebec patients deciding to access an abortion in a clinic no longer have to pay a fee, following an agreement between clinics and lâe(TM)Agence de santé et de services sociaux in January 2008. A limited number of Canadian clinics were also able to increase the number of procedures offered per year in order to decrease the long wait times.

I think itâe(TM)s worth noting, though, that there has not been much media that is celebratory of any of these accomplishments, or of choice for that matter. We are one of the few countries in the world that has unrestricted abortion access and we should be taking as many opportunities as possible to be proud of that!

So where to go from here? The latest Angus-Reid poll revealing that only 49 per cent of Canadians believe that abortion should remain legal under any circumstances shows us that the battle is not over yet.

In fact, I really donâe(TM)t like to think of basic human rights like abortion as only battles, or movements, or current affairs we have to deal with.

We should always be there to support people having rights over their own bodies. The truth of it all is that the moment we stop supporting these rights, they go away.