Canada celebrates 20 years of choice
Today marks the 20 year anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that struck down Canada's anti-choice laws as unconstitutional.
In the majority decision chief justice Brian Dickson stated: "State interference with bodily integrity and serious state-imposed psychological stress, at least in the criminal law context, constitutes a breach of security of the person. Section 251 (the old abortion law) clearly interferes with a woman's physical and bodily integrity. Forcing a woman, by threat of criminal sanction, to carry a fetus 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 an infringement of security of the person."
So congrats to our neighbors in the north, on 20 years of choice and trusting women.
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For anyone interested in more on this, there was a great interview with Henry Morgantaler (the doctor who was the subject of the Charter challenge) on CBC yesterday. According to Evan Solomon, the interviewer, this is the last interview Morgantaler intends to give, and he touches on his own fears for his life given his prominence in the movement, as well as his relationships with women (notably his mother and his many wives). http://cbc.ca should have it on there eventually in their podcasts.
Solomon also notes at the end of the interview that the struggle up here continues as well. There is a case before the courts dealing with exercising access and the bariers to that.
Hooray For Hosers!! ;)
(I think I want that on a T-shirt...!)
Not that we're totally 100% "advanced" or "enlightened", but it makes me happy to live in a country that's on the right track in some areas. :)
Wow, I can't believe it wasn't legal until before I was born. Although I'm confused because my mom has mentioned considering abortion, as if it was legal, when she was a pregnant teen but she went with adoption. This was around 1974.
I read an article about anti-choice Canadians the other day. Currently I have no fear of losing the right to choose although I thought, if these are as persistent as some Americans, I could see us being where America is in 10-15 years.
Uh, that should be, "I can't believe it wasn't legal before I was born".
The university I used to go to gave Morgantaler an honourary degree a couple of years ago and a lot of the anti-choice Canadians came out of the woodwork. They picketed the grad ceremony and there was a lot of controversy about whether the degree was appropriate.
I think these groups are less vocal in Canada, but they still come out full force sometimes.
Lyndorr: It was technically legal prior to the 1988 decision. However, your mother, had she choosen abortion, would have had to convince a 3 doctor "abortion panel" that her abortion was "necessary". These panels were rather notorious for turning down women, and access was almost impossible for lower income or rural women. What the 1988 decision did was strike down those panels, making the choice to abort (or not) solely that of the woman.
Access is still bad for rural woman, but at least now they don't have to endure and biased interrogation on top of their long drive (in northern Alberta, for example, the distances could be as long as 7 hours to the nearest centre).
It's not just difficult to access in rural areas.. some provinces have NO providers at all.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080128/abortion_080128/20080128?hub=Canada
The references to Juno as proof that young women do not need abortions really annoy me. That's like using Pretty Woman as an example that being a sex trade worker will lead you to find Prince Charming.
Yeah Canada! It's true, while there is celebrating to be done this week, there is still a struggle ahead of us. Example: I was doing a press conference on the hill today with Canadians for Choice and ALL the questions the press asked us were anti-choice. :(
I think there are more of us than them though, and I don't think our rights are in serious jeopardy just yet. Keep fighting the good fight!
We don't have the same financial backing for the religious right here in Canada as you do in the US. We never had a Ronald Reagan, either, nor two regimes of Bushes. But we do now have a nasty neo-con government which is encouraging the fetus fetishists to mouth off. Like pedgehog, I think there are more of us than them.
If you'd like to read what other Canucks are saying, check out this thread at Bread and Roses.
I'm not Canadian, but it sounds like while this is fantastic, there's still much to be done. There need to be clinics in rural areas (or at least free or cheap transportation from rural areas to urban clinics) and further from the border. Canadians can correct me if I'm wrong in that, that's just what I got out of the article.
Even still, it sounds like they are on a better track then the U.S. is right now. No hooey about "partial birth" to try and scare people into being anti-choice. At least, not in a wide-spread way.
Don't forget the Abortion Act 1967.