By Sadie De Arruda
All across Canada abortion healthcare is legally available to those that need it. However, the rights of women and anyone who is able to get pregnant, are still being threatened in Canada. Groups such as Campaign Life Coalition exist across Canada working to reverse the progress made by the government across areas including access to healthcare including abortions, and reducing sex education in schools. But first, let's look at Canada’s history with abortion healthcare.
In 1988 the supreme court deemed Canada’s abortion law unconstitutional, as it violated section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms because it infringed upon a woman’s right to “life, liberty, and security of person.” Canada became one of the first countries to treat abortion as a medical procedure like any other. This means abortion has been legal in Canada for 35 years. The following year in 1989 the supreme court ruled that the father has no right to veto a woman’s decision regarding abortion. Jump forward a few years to 2015 when Mifegymiso (a medication used for medication abortions) is approved by Health Canada, and then in 2017 Mifegymiso starts being sold across Canada and is covered for those on provincial medical plans.
Now lets have a look at the people who want to reverse all that progress, Canada’s largest anti-choice organization Campaign Life Coalition. According to their website, “Campaign Life Coalition is a national pro-life organization working at all levels of government to secure full legal protection for all human beings, from the time of conception to natural death. We defend the sanctity of human life against threats posed by abortion, euthanasia, doctor-assisted suicide, reproductive and genetic technologies, cloning, infanticide, eugenics, population control, and threats to the family.” To simplfy what’s being said, they want to reduce women’s control over their bodily autonomy in a number of ways. As a side note, they also don’t believe in same-sex relationships so if a person was forced to have a baby, they wouldn’t allow a same-sex families to adopt the child.
This organization is one of many, and they exist all across Canada and are always working to grow their influence over Canadian policies. They work to reduce so called ‘radical’ sex education in schools, and provide voters with information on candidates with the same goals of reducing woman’s right to bodily autonomy, and the rights of any other group than white christian men. Groups like these are active not only in social settings, but as said work to gain control over government. This is part of the reason why voting is still so important. Campaign Life Coalition and other organizations work to promote conservatives and get them elected in order to gain more control and have a say in government policy.
The intent of this article is not to scare, but to educate on some of Canada’s hidden dangers. Now to show what’s being done to educate Canadians on the realities and how they can stand up for the rights of those who can get pregnant. Abortion Rights Coalition is a pro choice organization whose mission is as follows, “To ensure reproductive freedom by protecting and advancing rights and access to abortion and to quality reproductive health care.” They are a national non-profit made up of smaller pro-choice groups and indivuduals all around Canada. On their website they have lots of resources including election information, allowing voters to know which candidates are opposed to abortions. They also have up to date information on bills looking to be passed such as BILL C-311, which is being marketed by Conservatives as harsher consequences for violence against pregnant women, as a way of reopening the argument of fetal rights.
There is lots of information available on the subject of abortion healthcare, but not everything is accurate, here are a few trusted sources to turn to when learning about reproductive healthcare.
Sex and U is a website formed by the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, which respects a woman’s right to choose and therefore provides information on all topics related to reproductive, including options following an unwanted pregnancy.
Abortions Right Coalition as already discussed is a great resource on ways to get involved for the continued fight for reproductive healthcare and education, and also provides information on how to deal with an unwanted pregnancy.
Shore Center is another pro-choice organization within Ontario, and provides education, support to those dealing with an unwanted or unplanned pregnancy, and other resources.
It’s important to remember that although the conversation around reproductive healthcare can seem daunting and there are many people who don’t understand the importance of this issue, mostly because it doesn’t affect them, the conversation is still incredibly important to have. This issue effects everyone, whether or not you can get pregnant, and for that reason everyone should want to help ensure that reproductive healthcare is legally available to all.