Abortion Rights in Canada

A flurry of news regarding abortion rights have been in the press in recent days as a result of the murder trial of anti-abortion extremist and looney-tones hypocrite James Kopp. Ironically, many who claim that that the 'unborn' have the right to life are unwilling to extend the right to the living, that is, those who perform abortions. Kopp, who has already been convicted of the execution of Dr. Barnett Slepian, is on trial again for the same killing. If convicted this time around, he will serve his sentence in the federal system, meaning there is no chance of parole. Kopp is also the suspected shooter in a series of shootings in the 1990s; abortion providers in Vancouver, Ancaster, Ont., and Winnipeg were all shot at under similar conditions. Luckily, all three doctors survived.

The CBC has provided a wonderful time line on the evolution of abortion rights in Canada. In theory, Canada has the potential to best provide for a woman's inherent right to chose in the sense that there is no law regarding abortions in Canada. This is a good thing, as it respects a woman, her body, her priorities, and her aspirations; it also realizes that an abortion is ultimately a woman's private choice. However, many hospitals are cutting back on their funding for abortion services, leaving many women to seek an abortion in a private health facility at their own expense. This leaves access uneven, as depending on income or geography, a woman's right to chose is limited. It also disobeys a 1988 Supreme Court Ruling.

Respecting a woman's right to chose and securing improved conditions has been a hard fought battle, and one that will likely never end. We need to focus more on the expansion of abortion services, while at the same time seeking to protect the services that already exist.

Here is the CBC time line......

1892: Parliament passes Canada's first Criminal Code. It prohibits abortion as well as the sale, distribution and advertising of contraceptives. A significant number of women continue to seek abortions, according to news reports.

1969: Pierre Trudeau's Liberal government decriminalizes contraception and allows abortion under certain circumstances. Abortions may be performed in a hospital if a committee of doctors decides that continuing the pregnancy may endanger the mother's life or health. Access to abortions varies across the country.

1969: Abortion activist Dr. Henry Morgentaler defies the law and opens an abortion clinic in Montreal. His clinic is raided in 1970 and he is charged with several offences. It marks the beginning of a 20-year series of legal battles.

May 1970: 35 women chain themselves to the parliamentary gallery as part of a two-day demonstration for abortion rights.

March 1973: Morgentaler announces that he has successfully performed over 5,000 abortions.

March 1975: Morgentaler begins serving an 18-month jail sentence after the Supreme Court of Canada rejects his appeal. Earlier, a Quebec court had convicted him of a charge of conspiracy to commit an abortion. While he's in jail, Quebec prosecutes him on a second count of conspiracy to commit an abortion. This time, he's acquitted - and the Quebec Court of Appeal does not overturn the verdict.

May 1975: A petition against abortion rights with over one million signatures is delivered to Parliament.

January 1976: The federal justice minister sets aside Morgentaler's original conviction and orders a retrial. Morgentaler is released from jail after serving 10 months.

September 1976: Morgentaler is acquitted of the original charge laid after his Montreal clinic was raided in 1970. In November, Quebec's newly-elected Parti Québécois government drops all outstanding charges against Morgentaler.

1982: Canada enacts the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Any law found contravening those rights can be struck down as invalid.

July 1983: Police raid Morgentaler's newly-opened Toronto clinic and charge him along with two colleagues. Over the next five years the case winds its way up to the Supreme Court.

1983: Former Manitoba politician Joe Borowski launches a case asking the courts to declare the 1969 amendments invalid. He argues that the outlay of public money for abortion is unlawful because it contravenes the Canadian Charter of Rights, which he argues guarantees a fetus's right to life. A Gallup poll shows that 72 per cent of Canadians believe the decision to abort should rest solely with the pregnant woman and her doctor.

1988: The Supreme Court of Canada strikes down Canada's abortion law as unconstitutional. The law is found to violate Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms because it infringes upon a woman's right to "life, liberty and security of person." Chief Justice Brian Dickson writes: "Forcing a woman, by threat of criminal sanction to carry a foetus to term unless she meets certain criteria unrelated to her own priorities and aspirations, is a profound interference with a woman's body and thus a violation of her security of the person." Canada is now one of a small number of countries without a law restricting abortion. Abortion is now treated like any other medical procedure and is governed by provincial and medical regulations.

March 1989: The Supreme Court of Canada refuses to rule on Borowski's case, which argues that fetuses have a constitutionally guaranteed right to life. The court says his case is moot since the abortion law had already been struck down.

1989: The Supreme Court rules that a father has no legal right to veto a woman's abortion decision. The ruling comes after the boyfriend of Chantal Daigle obtained a court injunction preventing her from getting an abortion. By the time the case was settled, Daigle had secretly obtained a late-term abortion in the U.S. In Ontario, a similar injunction was granted against Barbara Dodd filed by her ex-boyfriend. She too has an abortion but later tells the public she regrets her decision.

1989: Nova Scotia bans abortions in clinics outside hospitals.

1990: The federal government, led by Progressive Conservative Brian Mulroney, introduces Bill C-43, which would sentence doctors to two years in jail for performing abortions where a woman's health is not at risk. The bill is passed by the House of Commons, but dies in the Senate after a tie vote.

May1992: Morgentaler's Toronto clinic is firebombed.

1994: New Brunswick bans abortions in clinics outside hospitals.

November 1994: Dr. Garson Romalis is the first Canadian doctor shot for performing abortions. He's hit by a sniper while eating breakfast in his Vancouver home. Two other similar shootings follow in 1995 and 1997, first in Ontario, then Manitoba. None of the attacks is fatal. James Kopp, who was later convicted for the fatal shooting of a doctor who performed abortions in Buffalo, is named as a suspect in some of the Canadian shootings.

1995: Provincial and federal rulings force Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to allow private abortion clinics. Despite that, access to abortions outside hospitals continues to be inconsistent across the country. Some provinces decide to cover the cost of abortions performed in clinics outside hospitals. Others don't, meaning that women who can't get into a hospital for an abortion must pay the costs of a clinic abortion out of their own pocket.

June 2, 2004: Conservative Leader Stephen Harper tries to steer clear of the abortion controversy while campaigning for the June 28 election, saying he has no plans to change the country's abortion regulations if he forms the next government. The statement comes after his party's health critic says women considering an abortion should receive third-party counselling.

June 3, 2004: Liberal Leader Paul Martin says he would never undermine a woman's right to choose on the issue of abortion.

May 18, 2006: Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton, the last hospital in New Brunswick to perform publicly funded abortions, announces it will suspend the service as of July 1, citing workload problems. New Brunswick is the only province in Canada that refuses to pay for abortions performed in clinics, despite the 1988 Supreme Court of Canada ruling.