20 years of legal abortion in Canada

Two decades after a medical abortion became legal in Canada, abortion rights advocates and anti-abortion activists alike marked the anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling that allowed medical professionals to help women end their pregnancies.

On January 28, 1988, Chief Justice Brian Dickson ruled that a Canadian law severely restricting access to medical abortions was unconstitutional because it violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Twenty years later, advocates for a woman’s right to an abortion gathered outside Ottawa’s Morgentaler clinic on Bank Street to remember the occasion and discuss the hurdles that remain for women seeking abortions.

But not everyone thought the ruling was a cause for celebration. Louise Harbour, who is a member of the anti-abortion group Action Life Ottawa, said people’s perspective on unplanned pregnancy has changed in the years since the law was struck down.

“It’s as if it’s almost expected that …you will choose an abortion if you find yourself pregnant,” she said. “Is this the best that we can do for women?”

Lisa Middleton, a member of Canadian Youth for Choice, said abortion rights advocates and anti-abortion groups do share some common ground, and the next step in the ongoing debate over abortion rights is for the two sides to work together.

Meanwhile, some abortion rights advocates said hurdles remain for women seeking abortions, such as the ongoing stigma against abortion, continuing opposition by anti-abortion groups and limited access to abortion in some cases.

Between 1969 and 1988, Canadian law stated that abortions could be performed in a hospital if a committee of doctors decided that continuing the pregnancy could endanger the mother’s life or health. Access to abortions varied across the country.

Canada is now one of a small number of countries without a law restricting abortion. An abortion is now treated like any other medical procedure and is governed by provincial and medical regulations.

Source: CBC News

 

In the following video, you can see that the debate on abortion is still on, 20 years after its legalisation, which leads to many incients between pro-life and pro-choice advocates: On April 7, 2006 in Vancouver, in front of an abortion clinic, pro-life demonstrator Rose Mawhorter (Campaign Life Coalition BC) is quickly assaulted by a pro-”choice” woman.

 

Spain: Offensive pro-life

The debate on abortion was at the heart of Spain’s general election campaign last March.

In December 2007 already, Prime Minister José Luis Rodrigues Zapatero had reconsidered his initial decision not to “meddle with such a polemic issue” after several private hospitals in Barcelona and Madrid were accused of performing “illegal pregnancy termination”.

Since 1985, women are allowed to have recourse to abortion only in case of rape (before the twelfth week of pregnancy), malformation of the fetus or risk for the physical or psychic health of the mother. In the last case however, which is invoked by 90% of the 100 000 candidates for voluntary termination of pregnancy (V.T.O.P) yearly, the law does not specify any time limit.

This restrictive law which still considers abortion as a crime -even if the practice currently experiences a boom in Spain with 105 000 avortements in 2007, twice as much as in 1997- obviously explains the recent affair in the country, where 29 women were brought before a court for “illegal abortion”.

The scandal first blew up on November 2007 with the arrest of Carlos Morin, a doctor from Barcelona accused of interrupting late pregnancies -up to seven months- for a fee of 600 euros. Since the current law does not impose any time limit when the physical or psychic health of the mother is considered at risk, Morin may have falsified psychiatric reports. As a result of such abuses, every private hospitals -which are responsible for 98% of VTOP in the country- are now targeted by the authorities.

 

Worried about these attacks to women’s rights, feminists are calling for a reform: up to 12 weeks, a woman should not be obliged to justifiy her choice.

 

Have a look at France 24’s report to understand what Spanish women experience in their daily lives when it comes to abortion:

In Nicaragua, women don’t have their say

On October 27th, 2006, a new law was passed in Nicaragua. This law bans voluntary termination of pregnancy (V.T.O.P) in ANY circumstances, and that even if the woman gets pregnant after having been raped. Before the reinforcement of the legislation, the clinical operation was authorised for medical reasons or when the pregnancy was harmful for the woman’s life.   

 

Following an intense pressure from the Church as well as from the pro-life movement,  a total interdiction is from that time in force in the country. The ban has also received support from the President and almost all the political parties in Nicaragua.

The consequences of such a law are easy to guess: millions of women might die in labour, innumerable teenagers might deliver babies whom they will not be able to take care, and more and more women might have to resort to illegal pregnancy termination.

We should not neglect that in Nicaragua, one out of three girls is victim of sexual abuse during her lifetime (Source: Oxfam).

This law is clearly an infringement to women and children’s rights.

 

Source: http://www.uni.edu/palczews/alta01.htm

Here is a documentary from the Channel 4 programme “Unreported World” on the issue (in 3 parts):