Abortion in Canada
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Abortion in Canada is legal throughout pregnancy and is publicly funded as a medical procedure under the combined effects of the federal Canada Health Act and provincial health-care systems.[1] However, access to services and resources varies by region.[2] While some restrictions exist,[1] Canada is one of the few nations with no criminal restrictions on abortion.[3][4] Abortion is subject to provincial healthcare regulatory rules and guidelines for physicians.[5][6] No provinces offer abortion on request at 24 weeks and beyond, although there are exceptions for certain medical complications.[7][8]
Formally banned in 1869, abortion would remain illegal in
In Canada, all surgical abortions are performed by a physician, with
History
Early history
During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, abortion before the “
As in other countries, illegal abortions were still performed, and some cases charged that this led to the deaths of women. The
Liberalisation of abortion laws
Chief Coroner Shulman
The movement to liberalize Canada's abortion laws began in the 1960s. Former Chief Coroner of Ontario Morton Shulman recalls that in the sixties, abortion could be legally performed only to save the life of the woman, so there were practically no legal abortions. He stated that the pregnant daughters of the rich were sent to reliable physicians who did abortions for cash. He estimated that these physicians did twenty to thirty abortions per week. Women who were not rich were left to perform an abortion on themselves or go to what he called a "nurse" abortionist. Their method was commonly pumping Lysol into the woman's womb. The mortality rate was high and the infection rate was over 50%. He added, "By the time I became Chief Coroner, I had had the unpleasant experience of seeing the bodies of some dozens of young women who had died as a result of these amateur abortions."[26]
Shulman decided to publicize deaths from illegal abortions.[27] He instructed his coroners to call a public inquest into each abortion death.[27] He describes one case that he believes was the turning point, that of 34-year-old Lottie Leanne Clarke, a mother of three children, who died of a massive infection in 1964 after an illegal abortion in spite of medical treatment and antibiotics. At the inquest into her death, the jury recommended that the laws about therapeutic abortion be revised. Shulman added that a federal government committee should review the question of abortion and the law. Newspapers published editorials recommending the reform of the abortion law. In 1965, the Minister of Justice, Guy Favreau, wrote to Shulman that the recommendation would be considered in the program to amend the Criminal Code. The eventual amendment closely followed the recommendations of the coroners' juries.[26]
Partial de-criminalisation
In 1967, Justice Minister Pierre Trudeau introduced a bill which included an amendment to the provision of the Criminal Code which prohibited abortions.[28] The bill, known as the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968–69, continued the basic prohibition on abortions, with the potential life sentence. However, the bill made an exception for abortions performed in a hospital with the approval of that hospital's three-doctor therapeutic abortion committee. The committee would have to certify that the pregnancy would be likely to endanger the life or health of the pregnant woman. The term health was not defined, and therapeutic abortion committees were free to develop their own theories as to when a likely danger to "health" (which might include psychological health) would justify a therapeutic abortion.[28] This same bill also legalized homosexuality and
When he introduced the bill in 1967, Trudeau was Minister of Justice in the government of Prime Minister
Badgley report
In 1975, a Committee on the Operation of the Abortion Law was appointed "to conduct a study to determine whether the procedure provided in the Criminal Code for obtaining therapeutic abortions [was] operating equitably across Canada", and to make recommendations "on the operation of this law rather than recommendations on the underlying policy". The Committee, known as the Badgley Committee after its Chair, Dr. Robin F. Badgley,[33] reported in January 1977. It found, quite simply, that "the procedures set out for the operation of Abortion Law are not working equitably across Canada". In large part, this was because the intent of the law was neither clear nor agreed upon. Access to abortion as set out in the Criminal Code was not available for many women due to variations in distribution of hospitals and doctors, and in whether Therapeutic Abortion Committees were set up and in doctors' interpretations of "health" for women, ages of consent, and parental notification requirements. The report recommended better family planning to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, but their main conclusion was that abortion services were not being delivered as required.[34]
Difficulties in access before decriminalization
By 1982, there were 66,319 legal abortions in Canada.[35] Interpretation of the 1969 law varied widely between doctors and hospitals, leading to uneven access. The standard was the physical or mental well-being of the woman, to be decided by a hospital's Therapeutic Abortion Committee. However, there was no requirement for a hospital to have a TAC to evaluate women. Only about one-third of hospitals had one. Some committees took a liberal stance and allowed most requests, while others blocked almost all requests. Access to legal abortions was easy in major metropolitan areas, but much harder outside large cities. In the province of Prince Edward Island, the lone Therapeutic Abortion Committee shut down, and there were no legal abortions in the province after 1982.[36] The Therapeutic Abortion Committees often took days or weeks to make their decisions, pushing a pregnancy further along than it would have been otherwise. The women were not seen by the committee, and had no right to appeal a decision. Advocates for abortion rights believed that the choice should be made by the woman, rather than a panel of doctors.[37]
Because of the lack of facilities in smaller provinces and rural areas, women were often forced to travel to major cities at their own expense. In Newfoundland, there was only a single gynaecologist who performed abortions. Many women had to buy expensive plane tickets to Toronto or Montreal to get an abortion.[35] Other women chose to travel to the United States, where abortions became available at many private clinics after the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. In 1982, 4,311 Canadian women travelled to the United States for an abortion.[36]
Constitutional challenges to the abortion law
In defiance of the law, Dr. Henry Morgentaler began performing abortions at his clinic in Montreal without approval of a therapeutic abortion committee.[38] He challenged the constitutionality of the abortion law on two separate occasions. The Supreme Court of Canada dismissed his first constitutional challenge in 1975, brought under the division of powers and the Canadian Bill of Rights, but in 1988, the Supreme Court allowed his second challenge, brought under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Court held that the abortion law was inoperative. Morgentaler eventually brought a third constitutional challenge, to a provincial law restricting access to abortions. He was successful in that challenge as well.
Morgentaler's struggle prompted a nationwide movement to reform Canada's abortion laws. In 1970, as part of the Abortion Caravan, 35 women chained themselves to the parliamentary gallery in the House of Commons, closing Parliament for the first time in Canadian history.[39]
First Morgentaler challenge: 1975
In 1973, Morgentaler stated publicly that he had performed 5,000 abortions without the permission of the three-doctor committees, even going so far as to videotape himself performing operations.[40]
The Crown prosecution service of Quebec prosecuted Morgentaler three times, and each time juries refused to convict him despite his outright admission that he had performed many abortions. The Crown appealed the first acquittal. In 1974, the Quebec Court of Appeal overturned the jury's verdict of acquittal in the first case, substituted a guilty verdict, and returned the matter to the trial judge for sentencing.[41]
Morgentaler then appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada on several grounds, arguing that:
- the Criminal Code provision was unconstitutional under the division of powers;
- the provision was inoperative under the Canadian Bill of Rights;
- the Court of Appeal did not have the authority to overturn the jury verdict of acquittal;
- the defence of necessity was available;
- s. 45 of the Criminal Code, which provided that a medical practitioner was not criminally liable for performing surgical procedures, was available as a defence.
In 1975, the Supreme Court dismissed his appeal by a 6–3 decision: Morgentaler v The Queen.[42] The Court was unanimous that the provision was valid criminal law, and therefore within the constitutional authority of the federal Parliament; it did not intrude on provincial jurisdiction over health. The Court also held unanimously that the law did not infringe the Canadian Bill of Rights.[43]
The Court gave those rulings from the bench, with written reasons on these points later given by Chief Justice Laskin.[44] However, the Court split 6–3 on the issues of necessity and s. 45 of the Criminal Code, which provided that a medical doctor who performed a surgery according to reasonable medical standards was immune from criminal liability:
- Six members of the Court, for reasons written by Justice Pigeon, held that the Criminal Code provisions respecting Crown appeals authorised the Court of Appeal to substitute a guilty verdict.[45]
- Six members also held, for reasons given by Justice Pigeon and Justice Dickson, that the defences of necessity and s. 45 did not apply to the criminal offence of procuring an abortion.[46]
- In dissent, three members of the Court, for reasons written by Chief Justice Laskin, would have held that the defences of necessity and s. 45 were available and therefore properly considered by the jury.[47]
As a result, the Supreme Court upheld the conviction entered by the Court of Appeal and remitted the matter to the trial judge for sentencing. The trial judge imposed a sentence of eighteen months imprisonment.
Public outcry over the decision caused the federal government to introduce an amendment to the Criminal Code (commonly known as the Morgentaler Amendment) taking away the jurisdiction of appeal courts to substitute a conviction for a jury's verdict of acquittal.[48][49]
Following the third jury acquittal, the Quebec government declared that the law was unenforceable and no further charges were brought.[10]
Second Morgentaler challenge: 1988
Upon his release from prison in Quebec, Morgentaler decided to challenge the federal abortion law in other provinces. Over the next ten years, he opened and operated private abortion clinics across the country in direct violation of the law. Following a fourth jury acquittal in 1984, the Ontario government appealed the decision. The Ontario Court of Appeal set aside the acquittal and ordered a re-trial.[10]
Morgentaler, in turn, appealed to the
There was no single majority judgment. Chief Justice Dickson, Justice Beetz, and Justice Wilson all wrote decisions finding the law to be unconstitutional, but for varying reasons in support. Justice McIntyre wrote the dissenting opinion.
Chief Justice Dickson held that "[f]orcing 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" infringed the woman's right to
Having found that law infringed the right to security of the person, the majority then considered whether that infringement was consistent with the principles of fundamental justice, which is the second branch of s. 7 of the Charter. The judges in the majority agreed that the procedural requirements to obtain an abortion, as set forth in the law, were especially troublesome. Only accredited or approved hospitals could perform abortions, which imposed a barrier to local access. The law also specified that women wanting an abortion were required to obtain approval from a "therapeutic abortion committee" in a hospital. The committee was composed of at least three physicians appointed by the hospital's board of members, and did not include the practitioner who was to perform the procedure.[52] The court found that the committee requirement was deeply flawed, in part because of the long delays caused by the committees and that in many hospitals, the committees were merely committees on paper and did not actually approve abortions.
Chief Justice Dickson held that "the structure -- the system regulating access to therapeutic abortions -- is manifestly unfair. It contains so many potential barriers to its own operation that the defence it creates will in many circumstances be practically unavailable to women who would prima facie qualify..." Noted barriers included a lack of hospitals with committees, doctors who did not wish to refer matters to committees, the lack of a standard meaning for "health" leading to inconsistent standards among committees, and geographical and financial differentials in treatment. He concluded the provision violated the principles of fundamental justice.[53]
The majority of the court in Morgentaler did not find it necessary to consider whether there was a substantive right to abortion under Section 7. Justice Wilson was of the opinion that such a right existed, but the other judges in the majority made their decision on procedural grounds, relating to the insufficiencies in the committee process.
Attempts at a new law
Following the 1988 Supreme Court decision, the Mulroney government made two attempts to enact a new abortion law.
In the spring of 1988, the government first attempted to find a compromise solution that would give easy access to abortion in the early stages of pregnancy and criminalize late term ones. The motion in the House of Commons was defeated 147 to 76, voted against by both MPs who opposed easy access to abortions and those who opposed adding any abortion rules to the Criminal Code.[54]
The Supreme Court decision became an important issue in the 1988 federal election later that fall. Both the Progressive Conservative and Liberal parties were sharply divided on the issue and neither party advanced a concrete platform on the abortion issue. Prime Minister Brian Mulroney declared he was opposed to "abortion on demand", but gave no details on what that meant legally.[55] Liberal leader John Turner stated that MPs should be allowed to vote their conscience, but refused to give his own opinion on the issue. NDP leader Ed Broadbent had a firm position that abortion is a medical matter, not a criminal one, and should be left to a woman and her doctor.[56] The Mulroney government was returned in the 1988 election.
In 1989, the government introduced a much stricter bill in the House of Commons. If enacted, it would ban all abortions unless a doctor ruled the woman's life or health would be threatened. Anyone found in violation of the law could be imprisoned for up to two years. These cases were reported in the news and the latter case was discussed at multiple levels of government. Speaking in the
For our purposes, though technically speaking the bill has not been proclaimed, Bill C-43 is, in the minds of the public and in the minds of women, now law. In fact, while we're dancing on the head of a pin and counting ourselves as angels, a woman in Toronto has died—she bled to death—three weeks ago. Her name was Yvonne Jurewicz, she was 20 years old and was probably afraid to go to the doctor and afraid to go to the hospital after she tried to abort herself. This is the sad fact of Bill C-43. While we debate the minor points of whether or not the Lieutenant Governor or the Governor-General of Canada has picked it up, we know that young women in this country are under the impression they will be considered criminals if they show up in an emergency ward door hemorrhaging.[60]
Reform Party MP
A few months later, the bill failed in the Senate on a tie vote. Under the rules of the Constitution in Section 36 of the Constitution Act of 1867, a tie meant the measure was defeated.[62] The defeat was somewhat unexpected since it was the first time since 1941 that the Senate, whose members are appointed, had outright defeated legislation passed by the House. Eike-Henner Kluge, the director of the Canadian Medical Association ethics and legal affairs committee, viewed that the bill was flawed ethically. Kluge drafted an analysis for a Senate committee about Bill C-43 and his presentation may have swayed two votes to change resulting in a tie vote which resulted in the Senate not passing the Bill C-43.[5]
In the wake of the controversy surrounding passage of the
Later cases relating to abortion
The court in Morgentaler did not consider the question of whether the unborn were included in the "everyone" who have the right to life. At that time, another case before the courts would have raised that issue; it was brought by Joe Borowski, a former member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba. However, after the Morgentaler decision, the Supreme Court held, in Borowski v Canada (AG), that his case was moot since Morgentaler had struck down the provisions Borowski was challenging.[63]
Two further cases,
Daigle had already had a late second-term abortion before the Court ruled on her case. While the case was fast-tracked, the progress was so slow that Daigle would have been in the
Two further cases addressed the "interest in the fetus". In
Case law
- Abortion trial of Emily Stowe (1879)
- Eastview Birth Control Trial (1936)
- Azoulay v. The Queen(1952)
- Morgentaler v. The Queen(1976)
- R. v. Morgentaler(1988)
- Borowski v Canada (AG) (1989)
- Tremblay v. Daigle(1989)
- R. v. Morgentaler(1993)
Accessibility and methods
Surgical and non-invasive medical abortions in Canada are provided on request for any reason, are confidential for all ages and funded by Medicare; to those who are covered by provincial/territorial medical care plans (depending on the province or territory, this always includes Canadian citizens and permanent residents, but may vary on inclusion of international students, workers, and protected persons or refugee claimants). For those not covered by a medical care plan (e.g. Americans in states that prohibit abortion after the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization), the federal government has committed to letting them obtain abortions in Canada without restriction. However, this will be contingent on them being able to pay for travel costs and the procedure themselves.[69]
Nationally, abortion is legal through all nine months (40 weeks) of pregnancy,[12] nevertheless no providers in Canada offer care beyond 23 weeks and 6 days.[8] Restrictions are based on professional medical guidelines, resources available (equipment, trained personnel) and individual facility mandates makes access to all types of services vary by region within each province and territory.[8][70][7] Each province and territory regulates and funds their own healthcare system. The federal government provides funding to each province and territory, provided they comply with the requirements of the Canada Health Act. One of those requirements is comprehensiveness, which means that all insured health services defined by the Act must be covered by a provincial or territorial health plan for that province or territory to receive federal funds.[71] Abortion is not specifically mentioned in the Canada Health Act. It is simply included in the broad definition of "insured health services", just like other medical and surgical procedures.[72]
One-third of hospitals perform surgical abortions, and these perform two-thirds of surgical abortions in the country. The remaining surgical abortions are performed by public and private clinics.
Nationwide information is provided by advocacy associations such as the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada and National Abortion Federation that maintain detailed lists of abortion clinics by province and the maximum gestational period that the clinic will provide abortion types up to.[7][70] These sites also provide information on how to obtain medication involving medical abortions, how to obtain financial support for travel/accommodation expenses, after-treatment supplies, child care and various other needs.[70][7]
Accessibility by province and territory
Region | Gestational limits[8] | # of providers[8] | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Alberta | 20 weeks | 5 | The province has abortion services accessible in Edmonton and Calgary.[76] All abortion services are offered.[77] |
British Columbia | 23 weeks and 6 days | 24 | The province is governed by the Access to Abortion Services Act, which limits political demonstrations outside abortion-providing facilities, doctor's offices, and doctor's homes to set distances. BC Women's Hospital & Health Centre can provide late-term abortions in Vancouver up until the 25th week of pregnancy (its CARE Program).[78] There are six abortion clinics throughout the province that can be accessed without a doctor referral and upwards of 30 hospitals that are required to perform abortions with a doctor's referral.[79][80] |
Manitoba | 19 weeks and 6 days | 4 | The province has limited access for those in rural communities. Aspiration or surgical procedures are available for up to 19 weeks and 6 days. Medical abortions up to 9 weeks.[81] |
New Brunswick | 16 weeks | 5 | New Brunswick does not use public funding to pay for abortion services outside of hospital settings. This means that abortions provided in clinics are not funded by the government.[82] |
Newfoundland and Labrador | 15 weeks | 4 | Planned Parenthood Newfoundland and Labrador is the only sexual health clinic in the province.[83][7] Full spectrum doula services.[70] |
Northwest Territories | 19 weeks and 6 days | 1 | Northern Options for Women (abbreviated as NOW) provides both medical and surgical abortion services in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.[84] |
Nova Scotia | 16 weeks | 11 | In Nova Scotia, there is an abortion clinic in Halifax or someone needing an abortion can call the abortion helpline for other options throughout the province that may be closer to them.[85] |
Nunavut | 12 weeks | 2 | All abortions must be performed in a hospital.[86] |
Ontario | 23 weeks and 6 days | 38 | Intimidation of and interference with patients or providers are illegal in "safe access zones" around abortion-providing clinics and other requesting health care facilities; the offices (on request) of providing doctors, nurses, pharmacists and some other providers; and providers' homes under the Safe Access to Abortion Services Act, 2017.[87] There are nine regions in Ontario where abortion is available with full spectrum doula services.[70][7] |
Prince Edward Island | 12 weeks and 6 days | 1 | Prince Edward Island offers in province abortions up until 12 weeks and 6 days pregnant. After that limit, an out of province surgical abortion would have to be performed. A referral must be obtained through a PEI physician prior to any surgical procedure.[88] |
Quebec | 23 weeks and 6 days | 49 | The province has a multitude of options for abortion access.[89] Historically, late-term abortions (beyond 30 weeks) had to be performed in the US with all expenses paid by the Quebec government. This changed in 2020 because of Covid travel restrictions.[90] |
Saskatchewan | 18 weeks and 6 days | 3 | Few resources available to those in rural areas.[91] |
Yukon | 12 weeks and 6 days | 1 | Whitehorse General Hospital is the only location in Yukon available for both medical and early aspiration abortions.[70][7] |
Politics
As of 2023, all federally represented
The Conservative Party has had to wrestle with combining the conflicting social policies of its two predecessor parties, the moderate
Until recently, the Liberal Party had a few anti-abortion MPs, such as Liberal MP Paul Steckle introduced a bill that would have made abortion after 20 weeks gestation a criminal act in June 2006.[97] Current Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has required that all Liberal party candidates will have to vote according to the party's abortion-rights policy since he assumed leadership of the Liberal Party in 2013.[98]
Although the issue of abortion rights has popped up from time to time in federal elections as a wedge issue, the issue is consistently rated as a low priority for most Canadians. The Christian Heritage Party of Canada claims to be Canada's only stated anti-abortion federal political party, but has never had a member elected to parliament.
On October 19, 2012, anti-abortion protester Patricia Maloney expressed concern over 491 cases of live-birth abortions between 2000 and 2009. The finding reported to Statistics Canada did not include detailed information on how long each fetus survived after removal or how many would have been possible to save. Canada, unlike the United States, does not specifically have a law confirming or denying the legal rights of a baby who survives abortion. On January 23, 2013, Conservative MPs Wladyslaw Lizon, Leon Benoit, and Maurice Vellacott wrote a letter requesting that the RCMP investigate how many of the 491 live-birth abortions meet the definition of homicide set forth in the Criminal Code.[99][100] When CBC and The Canadian Press used the phrase "investigate all abortions performed after 19 weeks gestation", Vellacott accused the media outlets of false reporting and acknowledged that abortion in Canada is fully legal.[101] The CBC / Canadian Press story was subsequently corrected.[99] The move drew approval from Dr. Eike-Henner Kluge, former director of ethics and legal affairs for the Canadian Medical Association, who said that doctors should "do the best [they] can for what is now a person in the eyes of the law". However, Dr. Douglas Black, president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said that the situation is not one of homicide, but rather allowing fetuses "to pass away, depending on what the circumstances are, sometimes in their mom's arms".[100]
Opinion polls
- In a poll conducted by the National Post in November 2002, 78% of respondents answered "yes" to the question: "Should women have complete freedom on their decision to have an abortion?".[102]
- In an April 2006 Leger poll, 34% of respondents said they found abortion "immoral", behind paedophilia, extramarital affairs, prostitution, alcohol abuse, sexual relations before the age of 16, pornographic films, and blasphemy.[103]
- In a June 2008 Prairies have the highest percentage who are anti-abortion and younger, wealthier, and university-educated respondents are more likely to uphold the legality of abortion.[104]
- In a March 2010 pro-life". One in ten respondents (10%) describe themselves as neither "pro-choice" nor "pro-life", and 11% did not respond.[105]
- In an IPSOS poll conducted in 2017, 77% said abortions should be permitted, which is higher than the global average of 71%.[106] A majority of Canadians (53%) said abortion should be permitted whenever a woman decides she wants to abort, while 24% favoured access under only some circumstances, such as when a woman has been raped.[106] A further 7% believed that abortion should only be permitted when a woman's life is in danger, and 5% believed the procedure should be illegal under any circumstance; 11% said they were unsure.[106]
- In a 2020 DART & Maru/Blue Voice Canada poll, 75% of Canadians said they were “satisfied” with Canada's abortion policies and 25% were not satisfied.[107] The strongest satisfaction was found in Québec (85%), followed by British Columbia (75%), Ontario (72%), Alberta (70%), Atlantic Canada (68%), and Manitoba and Saskatchewan (70%).[108] Satisfaction with Canada's policies were nearly identical across gender and age groups, with slightly higher favourability amongst middle and high-income Canadians as compared with those earning less than CDN$50,000 (78% vs. 74%).[108] In the poll, 71% of Canadians said that the government should not re-open the issue, and just 10% said they should re-open it; 8% professed indifference.[108] Canadians were almost equally split on whether they thought the government should even discuss creating a regulatory framework for abortion.[108] 70% of Canadians said they found abortion acceptable, vs. 10% who found it unacceptable; 11% professed indifference, and 10% said they didn't know.[108]
- In a 2020 IPSOS poll, support for abortion rights were slightly stronger than in 2017: 59% of Canadians said that abortion should be permitted whenever a woman wants one, with 18% saying it should only be permitted under limited circumstances (such as after rape), and 6% saying it should only be legal if the mother's life were in danger; just 4% said it should not be legal under any circumstances, while 13% either said they didn't know or that they preferred not to express an opinion.[109]
- A 2022 poll by Research Co found that 44% of Canadians believe that abortion should be legal under any circumstances, 37% think that abortion should be legal only under certain circumstances, and 10% think that abortion should be illegal in all circumstances. Support for legal abortion under any circumstances was highest in Quebec (50%), then Saskatchewan and Manitoba (47%), British Columbia (46%), the Maritime provinces (43%), Alberta (40%), and Ontario (39%). Support for legal abortion under any circumstances was highest among self-identified NDP voters (57%), followed by Liberal voters (48%), and Conservative voters (32%).[110]
Abortion rights movement
The
Dr.
The Canadian affiliate of
Anti-abortion movement
The
The anti-abortion movement in Canada is represented by the
Violence towards abortion providers
- In 1983, Henry Morgentaler was attacked by a man wielding garden shears; the attack was blocked by feminist activist Judy Rebick, who was standing nearby.[120]
- In 1992, Morgentaler's Toronto clinic was firebombed and sustained severe damage. The event occurred at night, so no one was injured, although a nearby bookstore was damaged. Appointments were switched to another clinic in Toronto and no abortions were prevented.[121]
- On November 8, 1994, Vancouver doctor Garson Romalis was shot in the leg.[122]
- On November 10, 1995, Dr. Hugh Short of Ancaster, Ontario, was shot in the elbow.[122]
- On November 11, 1997, Dr. Jack Fainman of Winnipeg was shot in the shoulder.[122]
- On July 11, 2000, Dr. Garson Romalis was stabbed by an unidentified assailant in the lobby of his clinic.[123]
See also
- Abortion laws by country
- Abortion debate
- Abortion-rights movements
- Anti-abortion movement
- Feminism in Canada
- History of Canadian women
- Human rights in Canada
- Women's suffrage in Canada
References
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While abortions after 20 weeks are statistically very rare (<2.5% of all abortions), there are people in Canada who require abortion beyond 20 weeks for serious and important reasons. There are only three service locations in Canada that offer abortion up to 23 weeks and 6 days (one in British Columbia, one in Southern Ontario, and one in Quebec). No providers in Canada offer abortion care beyond 23 weeks and 6 days.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4426-0502-2.
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- ^ a b c "Love4Life, Methods".
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- ^ a b Canadian Institute for Health Information. "Induced Abortions Reported in Canada in 2020".
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- ^ a b Shulman, Morton. Coroner, pp 58–61 Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1975.
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- ^ Morgentaler v The Queen, pp. 624–637.
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- ^ Morgentaler v The Queen, pp. 642–655.
- ^ "A crusader's legacy: How Henry Morgentaler changed Canada's laws". cbc.ca.
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- ^ R v Morgentaler, p. 173.
- ^ R v Morgentaler, pp. 65-66.
- ^ R v Morgentaler, pp. 66-72.
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Further reading
- Rachael Johnstone (September 15, 2017). After Morgentaler: The Politics of Abortion in Canada. UBC Press. ISBN 978-0-7748-3441-4.
- Raymond Tatalovich (May 20, 2015). The Politics of Abortion in the United States and Canada: A Comparative Study. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-317-45538-7.
- Shannon Stettner (August 26, 2016). Without Apology: Writings on Abortion in Canada. Athabasca University Press. ISBN 978-1-77199-159-9.
External links
- Richer, Karine. Abortion in Canada: Twenty years after R. v. Morgentaler. Parliament of Canada, Law and Government Division. PRB-08-22E.
- List of abortion clinics in Canada at the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada
- List of abortion clinics in Canada at the National Abortion Federation