Reproductive Activism and Abortion Research Network blogs

Thirty Years since Morgentaler: A New Frontier?

Shannon Stettner — Wed, 31 Jan 2018 17:30:20 +0000

In this post originally published on the Active History blog, RAARN members Shannon Stettner and Katrina Ackerman reflect on abortion politics and access thirty years after the Morgentaler decision, which struck down Canada's existing abortion law:

http://activehistory.ca/2018/01/thirty-years-since-morgentaler-a-new-fro...

When Protecting Free Speech Means Taking Away a Woman’s Right to Choose: Andrew Scheer and the Anti-Abortion Movement in Canada

Shannon Stettner — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 15:46:24 +0000

By Robyn E. Schwarz

On January 28, 1988, Henry Morgentaler stood outside the Supreme Court of Canada and proclaimed that “justice for the women of Canada has finally arrived.” The landmark Morgentaler decision struck down section 251 of the Criminal Code for violating section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, allowing Canadian women access to abortion without restrictions for the first time.[1] This month marks the ruling’s thirtieth anniversary, and the media has started to reflect on the ongoing barriers that Canadian women face in accessing this fundamental medical service. Lack of access, particularly in rural and Northern communities, continues to make abortion services across the country unequal.[2] The Morgentaler decision was an important victory in the fight to provide abortion access, but it was not the end of realizing reproductive justice for all Canadian women. Pro-choice activists continue to work to counter those who would seek to recriminalize abortion and take away our right to control our own bodies. Despite the decriminalization of abortion taking place thirty years ago, the anti-abortion movement shows no signs of going away. Unfortunately, a woman’s right to choose remains on the table in our collective public consciousness. Debates around abortion still take place in Canadian society.

Thirty years after Morgentaler, it is important to understand how anti-abortion activists continue to adapt their outdated views, rather than disappear. This piece will add to the broader conversation of where pro-choice activists should be focusing their efforts in 2018 by examining the anti-abortion movement in Canada today within the context of Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer’s vague comments about supporting “free speech” on university campuses. Scheer’s victory in May 2017 seemed like a return to the status quo for Canada’s Conservatives, as the thirty-eight-year-old became known throughout the leadership campaign as “Stephen Harper with a smile.” [3] However, in Scheer’s acceptance speech he highlighted a policy that would separate him from Harper. He argued that universities opposing “free speech” should not receive federal funding, a proposal that received overwhelming applause from the audience. At the time, the policy seemed to come out of nowhere, given the media coverage of Scheer during the race as Stephen Harper 2.0.

At the end of the summer, Scheer doubled down on his assertion in an interview with Chris Hall on CBC Radio’s biweekly Canadian political issues show The House. Hall asked Scheer how far he was willing to go with this promise, and whether or not he supported free speech for groups that promoted white nationalism in the wake of the violent rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Scheer stated that he condemned racism, but argued that “extreme examples” should not be used to justify “what is going on, on campuses here in Canada.” He asserted that small groups of “radical protestors” stifled student groups’ right to freedom of speech when they shut down events on University campuses. Scheer believed that he needed to sit down with University administrators and make sure that these events could still take place. Hall questioned him further, asking if it was okay for people who are critical of Islam to be able to assert their views. Getting flustered, Scheer returned to the idea “that small groups of radical protestors threaten events and then the Universities say oh well you know there’s a security concern,” causing the event to subsequently be cancelled. He wanted to work with Universities, something he thought students would appreciate, within Canada’s hate speech laws. Scheer finished by saying that Canadian society needed to do more to protect free speech on campuses.[4]

Scheer’s vague statements did not point to any specific groups or examples. Who specifically did Scheer’s comments refer to? Who was stifling free speech on Canada’s university campuses? The answer, apparently, came to Scheer in November when a so-called “free speech” controversy emerged at Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU). Multiple conversations around the role of teaching assistants, academic freedom, and what does or does not constitute good pedagogy emerged from the incident. Academics and journalists alike have already discussed this issue at length.[5] In the broader story of Scheer’s policy towards universities and free speech, the WLU incident acted as a smoking gun for the Conservative leader to once again voice his opinion that something sinister was occurring on Canada’s University campuses. Scheer called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to join him “condemning the egregious crackdown on free speech at Laurier University.” This, Scheer believed, showed that he was right. Students and faculty at Canadian universities faced increasing barriers to their right to express and debate controversial viewpoints. Scheer sounded this alarm in May, and students like the teaching assistant at WLU needed the federal government to step in and ensure the protection of their rights.[6]

Within the context of the WLU incident and recent debates around bringing speakers like Ann Coulter to Canadian campuses, it appears Scheer simply supports students expressing conservative ideas. For anyone who follows the activities of the anti-abortion movement in Canada, however, Scheer’s comments did not point to these individual instances. The vagueness of his free speech policy relates to the narrow margin of victory in the Conservative leadership campaign. Scheer only overtook leading competitor Maxime Bernier on the thirteenth ballot by relying on votes from social conservatives. He trailed Bernier until hardline social conservative Brad Trost fell out of the running. Once Trost’s supporters’ votes had to be redistributed, Scheer pulled ahead of Bernier and won the leadership race by less than two percent. Voters therefore did not simply reject Bernier’s libertarian platform. Scheer directed his comments on free speech at social conservatives in the party to whom he owned his victory, as a promise to defend their right to hold and express these views. Groups like Right Now, an increasingly vocal anti-abortion organization that works to support and elect candidates who share these views, played an integral role in Scheer’s campaign success. One can still go to Right Now’s website to see how they asked their anti-abortion supporters to vote in the Conservative leadership race.[7] When Scheer speaks of protecting free speech, he does so within the context of the anti-abortion movement and their desire to continue to advance their outdated views that a woman’s right to choose should not be protected by the state.

Both Scheer’s comments, and the rise of groups like Right Now, We Need a Law, and The Canadian Center for Bioethical Reform (CCBR), need to be read through the evolution of the anti-abortion movement in Canada and their increasing adoption of successful tactics to block women’s access to abortion from south of the border. Looking at the history of abortion in both Canada and the United States tells a similar story until we get to legislative advances in the last twenty years. Anti-abortion protesters in North America, responding to both Roe v Wade (1973) and R v Morgentaler (1988), typically utilized two tactics to advance their causes at the end of the twentieth century. First, they sought to shame women seeking abortions in front of clinics and hospitals that performed them. These protestors, often Christian, held signs claiming that women seeking abortions were immoral. They also spread misinformation about the harmful effects of abortion. Second, more radical anti-abortion protestors committed violent action against clinics and abortion providers. One example, among many, was the firebombing of Morgentaler’s Toronto clinic in May 1992. Abortion providers in Canada were shot and stabbed in the 1990s as the Canadian anti-abortion movement became more radicalized.[8]

Anti-abortion protestors intended these actions to both convince the public that abortion was morally wrong, and to stop abortions from occurring by any means necessary. However, in the court of public opinion, these violent actions did nothing to advance their position. Members of the mainstream anti-abortion movement in the United States recognized at beginning of the twenty-first century that violence only served to make the public more pro-choice, and less empathetic towards the protestors. They adopted two seemingly more moderate new tactics in the early 2000s, both of which have seen greater success limiting access to abortion in the United States. The first of these new tactics involves getting anti-abortion politicians elected to all levels of government so that they can pass Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) laws. The goal of these TRAP laws is simple, they want to use legislation to close abortion clinics by imposing excessive, unnecessary, and costly regulations on them.[9] Often, politicians argue that this kind of legislation protects “women’s health,” even though restricting access to abortion only hurts women. Since 2011, more than half the states in America have significantly reduced abortion access through these laws.[10]

American anti-abortion protestors also shifted the language they utilize to convince the public of their views. New arguments harness a pro-human rights rhetoric. Rather than simply claiming that abortion is morally wrong and un-Christian, anti-abortion protestors instead seek to convince the public that fetuses deserve the same rights as any other human being.[11] This language allows anti-abortion activists to see themselves as being on the “right side of history” because they believe eventually the public will come around to their views. More insidiously, they have started comparing themselves to abolitionists or civil rights activists. They borrow language from people like Martin Luther King Jr., arguing that the United States needs to “overcome” abortion.[12] Adopting the language of human rights allows anti-abortion activists to make these comparisons, and construct themselves as fighting for justice. This new rhetoric finds its way into proposed legislation, as politicians look to enact laws in all kinds of areas that define fetuses as persons. Most recently, the GOP’s proposed tax bill contained a clause allowing Americans the ability to open an educational savings account for the benefit of “an unborn child.” This small tweak would seemingly grant a fetus the same rights as a person, thereby advancing the anti-abortion position that life begins at conception.[13] In the United States today, the status of women’s reproductive health and access to abortion looks quite grim. Despite reports that one in four women in the United States will have an abortion by age 45, legislators at all levels of the U.S. Government continue to make accessing an abortion more difficult.[14] TRAP laws especially impact poor women and women of colour, who often cannot afford to travel or take time off work to meet unreasonable restrictions like mandatory waiting periods. With the appointment of conservative Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, anti-abortion advocates continue to chip away at women’s reproductive rights with the hope that Roe v. Wade will soon be overturned.

So how does this all relate to the anti-abortion movement in Canada and Scheer’s free speech comments? I said earlier that prior to the twenty-first century, the fight for reproductive rights took largely the same path in North America. These two new tactics, one involving elections and legislation to advance the anti-abortion cause, the other utilizing human rights language, are also starting to be adopted by anti-abortion activists in Canada. Founded in 2001, the CCBR implemented the rhetoric of human rights for their Genocide Awareness project.[15] They set up their anti-abortion displays on university campuses, city streets, or outside high schools, and discuss the issue with people passing by. The CCBR’s summer jobs program teaches young Canadians how to advance the anti-abortion position by adopting the language of human rights. They paint themselves as victims whenever challenged, and like their counterparts in the United States, believe that one day the Canadian public will see how forward-thinking and righteous their views are. They seek to use ‘empathy’ when interacting with people in the street, rather than screaming at them. Looking to the United States, the CCBR and its associates fundamentally believe their position on abortion is correct. If anti-abortion activists change how their present these ideas, they trust that their position will ultimately win.

Most recently, the non-profit organization Right Now started to try and implement the American strategy of supporting anti-abortion politicians. One of their founders, Alissa Golob, worked for the Campaign Life Coalition prior to helping create Right Now in 2016. The Campaign Life Coalition is the long standing social conservative body in Canada (started in 1978), and was responsible for much of the anti-abortion activism that I discussed earlier. They still plan and promote the March for Life every year in Ottawa, and advocate for the government to defund abortion. However, as Golob describes on her own website, they have been largely unsuccessful. The founders of Right Now saw how politicians in the United States continued to chip away at reproductive rights, and believed the Campaign Life Coalition utilized outdated tactics. They sought to adopt the American strategy of using political campaigns to advance the anti-abortion cause, with their long-term goal being the passing of anti-abortion legislation.[16] Right Now recruits, campaigns for, and provides resources to anti-abortion politicians. They believe that once enough elected officials share their views, that will translate into policy as it has in the United States. Their tactics so far have effected some change in Canadian politics; they owned Scheer’s victory as a success. More importantly, they helped then nineteen-year-old social conservative Sam Oosterhoff win a by-election in the Ontario riding of Niagara West-Glanbrook. Oosterhoff’s win exemplified all of Right Now’s strategies in action, from securing the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario nomination in his riding over a member of the party establishment, to his defeat of the NDP challenger. Right Now believes that Canadians will choose to vote for anti-abortion candidates, and that people like Oosterhoff just need encouragement and campaign support. They see the passing of so many TRAP laws in the United States as the result of grassroots efforts, and want to bring those same tactics to Canada.

In the CCBR and Right Now, we can see the influence of activities in the American anti-abortion movement throughout the last twenty years in Canada today. Both groups believe that engaging Canadians face to face will ultimately advance the anti-abortion position here. Both groups see American social conservatives’ success in politics at all levels, especially since 2010, as a blueprint for how to fight against abortion in Canada. The CCBR tries to change how the average Canadian views abortion, and then Right Now trusts they will vote for anti-choice politicians if they help them run for office. While the two organizations are not affiliated with one another, they are two halves of the same push to try and reinvigorate this debate in our country. The difference between Canada and the United States in the last twenty years, they believe, cannot possibly be as sign that their views are outdated or that Canadians are more pro-choice.[17] The Canadian anti-abortion movement just failed to recognize the flaws in their tactics sooner. The CCBR and Right Now hope to affect the same slow erosion of abortion access here in Canada going forward.

However, the legal history of abortion in Canada since 1988 paints an altogether different picture. In fact, pro-choice activists have won so many important victories. Any attempts by Canadian politicians to legislate anti-abortion views in Canada since R v Morgentaler failed. Repeated efforts at the federal level to introduce new abortion legislation went nowhere.[18] When Conservative MP Stephen Woodward brought forward Motion 312 in 2012 to review how the Criminal Code defines when life begins, pro-choice protestors mobilized and ensured that the bill failed.[19] Just in the past two years, Health Canada approved Mifegymiso (the abortion pill) for use in Canada. The abortion pill has so much potential to increase abortion access here, particularly for women in rural communities. While its roll out was astonishingly slow and poorly managed, the work of organizations such as Action Canada and the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada (ARCC) ensure that we continue to make progress expanding its availability and removing some of the initial restrictions put in place for its use.[20]

Provinces continue to change or take stronger stances on the abortion issue. The Maritimes historically maintained some of the strictest laws prohibiting women from accessing abortion in Canada, even after 1988.[21] PEI was the only province to not provide surgical abortions for thirty-five years until Premier Wade MacLauchlan announced in 2016 that abortion services would be available on the island. As of January 2017, PEI women can finally get an abortion in their home province.[22] In October, the Ontario legislature passed a bill banning protests outside and near abortion clinics.[23] This ‘bubble zone’ law, which comes into force February 1, 2018, will make it harder for anti-abortion activists to shame women accessing this fundamental health service and support their safety.

Local governments have also begun to refuse requests from anti-abortion groups in their communities. The city of Grande Prairie declined the CCBR’s application to run a graphic anti-abortion ad on its buses in 2016. The CCBR sued on the basis that the city’s decision infringed on its right to freedom of expression under the Charter. Justice C.S. Anderson found that the CCBR’s request would cause “psychological harm to women who have had an abortion” and “children who may not fully understand what the ad is trying to express.” Anderson agreed with the city’s position that the ad would not create a safe and welcoming environment on Grande Prairie’s transit system.[24] This was one of multiple cases over the past few years in which the CCBR or groups associated with them sued cities for not allowing anti-abortion advertisements. When anti-abortion organizations take these issues to court, the pro-choice side of the argument pushes forward. As anti-abortion legislation gains speed in the United States, Canadian pro-choice activists continue to fight to ensure that anti-choice views are opposed at every level of government. We have momentum and are winning, in almost every way, and I think members of the anti-abortion movement know this. To use a metaphor, I like to think of pro-choice activists in North America fighting the same final boss at the end of some sort of epic fantasy movie, with alternative endings. For the American pro-choice movement, the dragon that we thought was dead came back twice as strong and now has three different heads. In the Canadian version, that same dragon knows that we won, and is grasping to hurt our feminist heroes one last time before exhaling its final breath.

Which finally brings me back to why Scheer’s comments on free speech should ring alarm bells for pro-choice activists, and what I feel is the last great battle we must win to solidify the pro-choice position and begin to normalize abortion in Canadian society. Anti-abortion groups on Canadian university campuses have also been fighting for their right to spread their hateful views over the last ten years. Student societies across the country deal with community anti-abortion activists and student-led clubs associated with the CCBR who want to demonstrate on their campuses. These issues manifest themselves in both legal and social ways, and vary campus to campus. In some instances, like at Western University, CCBR-associated clubs exist with no repercussions.[25] They enjoy access to the same University resources (particularly funding, space, and a place at the campus club’s week to recruit new members) as any other club even though they essentially seek to shame and take rights away from other students. Some student unions allow these clubs to exist, but regulate or ban altogether their right to demonstrate on campus. Student associations at the University of Victoria, the University of British Columbia, and WLU all took this stance dealing with their respective anti-abortion clubs.[26] However, in each of these instances, we see the difficulties both student leaders and university administrators faced coordinating a response, while still allowing anti-abortion demonstrations to take place. Finally, some student unions have started to deny anti-abortion groups their “club status” within the university system. These clubs, with the assistance of the CCBR and the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms, sue the students’ unions on the basis that denying their right to be university-sanctioned represents infringes upon their right to freedom of expression. Anti-abortion activists almost always see any challenges to their activities or existence within the university system as a threat to free speech.

However, in many of these court cases decided over the past two years, the pro-choice position has won. In 2016, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice decided that the Ryerson Student Union (RSU) was right to deny Students for Life at Ryerson their affiliate status. RSU argued that the club stood “in contrast with RSU’s Policy on Women’s Issues,” and therefore an anti-abortion group did not belong at Ryerson.[27] Similarly, just this past October, the University of Alberta won a case against UAlberta Pro-Life. The anti-abortion group wanted a review of the university’s stance that they would have to pay $17,500 to cover security costs if they held a demonstration on campus. The Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench dismissed the case and ruled in favor of the University of Alberta’s handling of the situation.[28] There are countless other examples of cases currently making their way through the courts across the country, supported by the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms’ finances and resources. Every single one of these cases is framed as a violation of free speech. Yet these two recent victories, as well as the Grande Prairie advertising case, show that judges across the country are having none of it. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequence, or a right to access public resources to spread your views.

In Without Apology, Shannon Stettner contends that Canadians who favor abortion rights became complacent after the Morgentaler decision. She writes that “the assumption seems to be that the issue is resolved, perhaps because opponents of abortion have (so far) failed in their efforts to recriminalize abortion.”[29] This makes it easy for the average Canadian ignore Scheer’s comments, because framing anti-abortion views as a free speech issue ignores the very real threat groups like Right Now and the Canadian Center for Bioethical Reform present to women’s reproductive rights in Canada. But when we hear Scheer say that he supports free speech on University campuses, what he is in fact saying is that he is willing to use the power of the state to ensure that anti-abortion radicals can exist and continue to be normalized within Canadian society. University student unions have increasingly been taking steps to block CCBR and its supporters, and it is only a matter of time before more anti-abortion clubs see their office status revoked. This will cause more and more of these anti-abortion students to cry out that their rights are being infringed upon.

Unlike other hate groups in Canadian society, the anti-abortion movement enjoys relative acceptance by the public. It is still considered ‘normal’ not to freely talk about abortion, to see anti-abortion advertising on buses and billboards, and for groups like the CCBR to regularly occupy public spaces with their protests. For the average Canadian, the CCBR with their gross, misleading displays does not appear out of place in downtown Toronto on a Saturday afternoon. We have not yet gotten to a point where being against abortion makes someone a ‘dinosaur.’ We generally recognize that being openly racist or anti-sematic has no place in our society (or at least it did not until recently…), but being against women’s reproductive rights has somehow seemed okay. The Liberal Party of Canada only took a strong stance against MPs holding anti-abortion views before the 2015 federal election.[30] The people holding signs outside of abortion clinics and hospitals, young and old, are not viewed as harming women. Which is what makes Scheer’s comments so dangerous, because this reframing of being against groups that seek to take rights away from female students is not a matter of free speech; but with the public’s general engagement with anti-abortion protesters it might be perceived that way. Those of us in the Canadian pro-choice community need to fight harder to push back against Scheer and the anti-abortion groups he owes for his victory. We need to call anti-abortion protestors what they are: anti-women’s rights protesters. Anti-abortion activists or views have no place on university campuses. No female student should be forced to pay student fees, and then have some of that money go to people who do not support her bodily autonomy.

We need to work to move the conversation towards hate speech, rather than free speech. Anti-abortion organizations like the CCBR, anti-abortion student clubs, and Right Now should be called out for trying to take rights away from Canadian women. They should not be allowed to protest without being seen by the public as violating the Charter for publically shaming women and spreading false information about abortion. Justin Trudeau’s recent announcement that anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ organizations will no longer be eligible for summer jobs grants is an excellent, and much needed step in the right direction.[31] Yet, even when our government shows leadership to protect a women’s right to choose, Andrew Scheer and the anti-abortion movement refuse to see their beliefs as anti-women. They claim that any attempt to deny them funding violates their right to freedom of expression. Scheer and leaders in the anti-abortion community have tried since this announcement to shift the conversation away from women’s rights, and towards free speech.[32] The only way to ensure that we win this battle once and for all in Canada is to change how the anti-abortion movement is seen, and to show people like Scheer that we see through his rhetoric. Those of us in campus communities across the country need to speak out against anti-abortion groups that are getting far too comfortable on our campuses. We need to make sure this does not become a free speech debate, by highlighting how wrong it is that clubs exist with the sole purpose of taking away rights from female students. Thirty years after Morgentaler, I look forward to the day when being anti-abortion has no place in our politics or society.

Robyn Schwarz is a PhD Candidate in the Western University History Department. Her dissertation examines the experiences of single mothers in Ontario from 1957 to 1980, focusing on how programs and services for single moms sought to uphold the nuclear family model. She is also a passionate prochoice activist looking to use her knowledge of Canadian history to advance women’s reproductive rights in this country.

[1] Brett Bundale, “Thirty years after Morgentaler ruling on abortion rights, Canada ‘still dealing with the same issues,’ Toronto Star, December 20, 2017, https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/12/20/thirty-years-after-morgentaler-ruling-on-abortion-rights-canada-still-dealing-with-the-same-issues.html (accessed January 4, 2018).

[2] Jane Kirby, “A Broad Vision for Reproductive Justice,” Briarpatch, December 26, 2017, https://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/broad-vision-reproductive-justice (accessed January 15, 2018).

[3] Alex Boutilier, “All Your Andrew Scheer Questions Answered,” Toronto Star, May 28, 2017.

[4] CBC News, “'Extreme examples' shouldn't undermine free-speech pledge, Scheer says,” CBC News, August 26, 2017, http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/scheer-free-speech-universities-extreme-....

[5] See James Wilt’s commentary on the problematic media coverage of Shepherd here: https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/canadian-media-just-created-another-alt-right-superstar. Or this blog post from PhD student Aadita Chaudhury about the ways Shepherd failed to fulfill her TA responsibilities: https://medium.com/@thylacinereport/the-wlu-lindsay-shepherd-controversy-was-never-about-free-speech-9fe3442da3c3. Both are worth reading to understand the multiple lays of how the mainstream media and WLU mishandled this situation.

[6] Kate Bueckert, “Teaching Assistant Who was Sanctioned Questions Sincerity of Wilfred Laurier University’s Apology,” CBC News, November 22, 2017, http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/laurier-apology-lindsay....

[7] “Conservative Party of Canada Leadership Race,” Right Now, http://www.itstartsrightnow.ca/cpc_leadership (accessed December 4, 2017).

[8] Shannon Stettner, “A Brief History of Abortion in Canada,” in Without Apology: Writings on Abortion in Canada, ed. Shannon Stettner (Edmonton: Athabasca University Press, 2016), 52.

[9] “Issues: TRAP Laws,” NARAL Pro-Choice America, https://www.prochoiceamerica.org/issue/trap-laws/ (accessed December 4, 2017).

[10] “Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers,” Guttmacher Institute, https://www.guttmacher.org/state-policy/explore/targeted-regulation-abortion-providers (accessed December 5, 2017).

[11] Paul Saurette and Kelly Gordon’s The Changing Voice of the Anti-Abortion Movement discusses the different tactics used by the anti-abortion movement in North America, particularly after Roe v Wade and Morgentaler. They look at how the anti-abortion movement adopted pro-women tactics. They outline the shift towards a rhetoric of human rights as an adaption of the fetal personhood arguments put forward by early anti-abortion activists. See: Paul Saurette and Kelly Gordon, The Changing Voice of the Anti-Abortion Movement: The Rise of “Pro-Woman” Rhetoric in Canada and the United States, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2016.

[12] In light of John Bush being appointed by the Senate as a judge to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in July, the Huffington Post ran an article on his inflammatory statements. Bush drew criticism for having compared abortion to slavery, but as the Huffington Post pointed out, this analogy is hardly a fridge argument within the anti-abortion community. See: Chloe Angyal, “A New Federal Court Judge Compared Abortion to Slavery. He’s Not Alone,” Huffington Post, July 26, 2017, http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/judge-abortion-slavery_us_5978ce3fe4b0c95f3760fc00 (accessed December 5, 2017).

[13] Caitlin Emma, “Unborn Children’ Qualify as College Savers in GOP tax plan,” Politico, November 2, 2017, https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/02/gop-tax-bill-abortion-rights-college-savings-244486 (accessed December 5, 2017).

[14] “Abortion Is a Common Experience for U.S. Women, Despite Dramatic Declines in Rates, Guttmacher Institute, https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2017/abortion-common-experience-us-women-despite-dramatic-declines-rates (accessed December 5, 2017).

[15] See Carol Williams, “Campus Campaigns Against Reproductive Autonomy: The Canadian Center for Bioethical Reform Campus Genocide Awareness Project as Propaganda for Fetal Rights,” Active History, December 22, 2014, http://activehistory.ca/papers/paper-18/ (accessed January 3, 2018).

[16] Alissa Golob’s website details much of this strategy and the founding of Right Now. See: Alissa Golob, “If Marchers Were Campaigners, We’d Have Pro-Life Laws in Canada,” Alissa Golob, http://www.alissagolob.com/if-marchers-were-campaigners-wed-have-pro-life-laws-in-canada/ (accessed January 5, 2018).

[17] I do not actually think Canadians are more pro-choice than Americans, and in fact the slow roll out of Mifegymiso shows we have a lot of work to do in terms of making abortion accessible to all. I think the difference is linked to how successful the GOP and anti-abortion activists in the United States have been advancing their agenda. As I describe above, they have come up with new and despicable ways to chip away at reproductive health services, especially at the state level. The difference is linked to effectiveness (which Right Now recognizes) and acceptance, rather than a difference in how Americans view abortion. Fundamentally, the public opinion in both countries generally supports abortion access.

[18] Stettner, 51.

[19] One of the best responses to Motion 312, which pro-choice protesters in the United States and around the world have since replicated, was the founding of the Radical Handmaids. As their website suggests, “the Radical Handmaids are pro-choice activists who love CanLit and really outrageous hats.” These women in Ottawa dressed up as characters from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale to protest Woodward’s bill, and were ultimately successful. You can read more about them and their current work here: https://radicalhandmaids.com.

[20] You can check out Action Canada’s amazing website and resources for Mifegymiso here: http://www.mifegymiso.com/home.

[21] See all of Katrina Ackerman’s work, including “In Defense of Reason: Religion, Science, and the Prince Edward Island Anti-Abortion Movement, 1969-1988,” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History 31, no. 2 (2014): 117-138.

[22] Anne Kingston, “After 35 years, abortions are finally available in P.E.I.,” Macleans, February 3, 2017, http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/after-35-years-abortion-available-in-pei/ (accessed December 6, 2017).

[23] The Canadian Press, “Ontario Makes it Illegal to Protest Outside and Near Abortion Clinics,” CBC News, October 25, 2017, http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-abortion-protest-bill-1.4372090 (accessed December 6, 2017).

[24] The Canadian Press, “Alberta Judge Upholds City’s Right to Reject Graphic Anti-Abortion Ad on Buses,” Toronto Star, January 3, 2017, https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/01/03/alberta-judge-upholds-citys-right-to-reject-graphic-anti-abortion-ad-on-buses.html (accessed December 8, 2017).

[25] I am a PhD Candidate at Western, and am actively working with the University Student Council to change what our anti-abortion club can do on campus within the system of student governance. This includes ensuring that the university community is notified of their protests, and curbing their ability to spread false information. Western’s known for its conservatism, so the fact that our anti-abortion club receives very little resistance should not surprise anyone.

[26] For UVIC see: Cormac O’Brien, “UVSS criticizes UVIC’s handling of YPY demonstration,” Martlet, November 17, 2017, http://www.martlet.ca/uvss-criticizes-uvics-handling-of-ypy-demonstration/; for UBC’s press release see: “Demonstrations on Campus,” The University of British Columbia, http://universityrelations.ok.ubc.ca/demonstrations/index.html (accessed December 8, 2017); for WLU see: Kaitlyn Severin, “UPDATED: Anti-Abortion demonstration in the Quad,” The Cord, October 20, 2016, https://thecord.ca/anti-choice-demonstration-in-the-quad/ (accessed December 8, 2017).

[27] Helena Najm, “Anti-Abortion Group Loses Litigation Against Ryerson Students’ Union,” The Varsity, October 24, 2016, https://thevarsity.ca/2016/10/24/anti-abortion-group-loses-litigation-ag....

[28] John Cotter, “No Review of How University Handled Anti-Abortion Group’s Demonstration,” CBC News, October 12, 2017, http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/anti-abortion-university-alberta-review-1.4352237 (accessed December 8, 2017).

[29] Stettner, 55-56.

[30] Adrian Wyld, “Trudeau now says all Liberal MPs must vote pro-choice,” The Globe and Mail, June 18, 2017, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/trudeau-says-all-liberals-mp-will-have-to-vote-pro-choice/article19218815/.

[31] Amanda Connolly, “Anti-Abortion Efforts out of Sync with Canadian Society: Trudeau,” Global News, January 10, 2018, https://globalnews.ca/news/3957069/anti-abortion-efforts-out-of-sync-with-canadian-society-trudeau/ (accessed January 15, 2018).

[32] Joe Lofaro, “Scheer accuses Trudeau of ‘imposing’ values on abortion with summer jobs grants,” CBC News, January 12, 2018, http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/scheer-summer-grant-jobs-abortion-1.4484588 (accessed January 15, 2018).

Telling Abortion Stories

Shannon Stettner — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 16:09:08 +0000

RAARN member Shannon Stettner reflects on the importance of abortion narratives in "Telling Abortion Stories," published on the Notches: (re)marks on the history of sexuality blog:

http://notchesblog.com/2017/12/19/telling-abortion-stories/

The “A” Word: Intertwined Histories of Infertility, Adoption and Abortion

Shannon Stettner — Sun, 11 Jun 2017 14:28:13 +0000

Read about how RAARN member Katrina Ackerman's research on the anti-abortion movement in Atlantic Canada has led to a new research focus on infertility and the link between fertility issues and anti-abortion sentiments. http://activehistory.ca/2017/04/the-intertwined-histories-of-infertility-adoption-and-abortion-politics-in-atlantic-canada/

What the US election means for reproductive justice and abortion access

cmacquarrie — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 19:32:04 +0000

At this point, we are wondering what the potential impacts of the change in leadership in the US will bring to matters of reproductive justice and abortion access. Do you want to write a blog post about this? Please contact me, Colleen MacQuarrie (cmacquarrie@upei.ca) if you are interested in blogging about your ideas.

Screwing the System, Changing the Game: Reproductive Justice in New Brunswick

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 17:38:21 +0000

2014 brought many changes to New Brunswick. After struggling financially for many years, the Maritime Provinces’ only abortion clinic announced its closure in the spring and shut its doors in July.

Once the announcement was made, a grass roots movement took hold in Fredericton. What started as reactionary rallies hosted by the Fredericton Youth Feminists, and an ad hoc committee, evolved and has grown into a feminist collective named Reproductive Justice New Brunswick.

During New Brunswick’s provincial election, RJNB and their allies across the province succeeded in bringing the abortion access issue to the forefront of the campaign. For the first time, New Brunswick’s provincial parties had to campaign with abortion and reproductive health issues as a part of their platforms. We are extremely pleased to see that New Brunswickers have voted for access.

Knowing that at best the government would be slow to act or increase services, New Brunswickers decided to do it themselves. RJNB met with a doctor who was living in Vancouver but originally from New Brunswick. After meeting with him and his partner, RJNB started an online crowd-funding campaign to raise money in order to help purchase the clinic and bring the doctor and his partner, a social worker, to New Brunswick. With the purchase of the clinic, they opened a family practice that will also include abortions as part of its services.

RJNB’s campaign was incredibly successful. Thanks to donations from people and organizations from across North America, we raised over $125 000 to put towards the purchase of the former Morgentaler clinic. The former clinic was still sitting empty and already had the setup and equipment of a family doctor’s office, as well as the safety features intended to protect abortion providers and their staff from violence. The community buying and implementing our own clinic, while still holding the government accountable, was a game changer. As far as we know, this is the first crowd-sourced clinic in North America.

Clinic 554 reached out many times to the provincial government, and did have a meeting prior to the clinic opening, but the government delegates made it clear they would not be interested in taking part in the opening of the clinic. Unfortunately, the Department of Health and the two health authorities in New Brunswick (Vitalité and Horizon) have a history of not utilizing resources we already have.

In the late fall, the new Liberal government made an announcement that they were amending the regulation 84-20, which required two doctors to sign off on any person’s hospital abortion, and required that it be done by a specialist. It was exciting to know that the government was finally talking about abortion, and trying to make changes. Unfortunately, while these requirements are no longer necessary at the provincial level, they can still be enforced in practice by the two hospitals. Information services, and knowledge about the hoops that patients need to jump through, continue to be inconsistent and hard to find.

Informational services like New Brunswick TeleCare also continue to give out misinformation. This is compounded by a piece of legislation left unchanged, stating that Medicare will only cover procedures performed in a hospital. People are still having problems accessing hospital abortions. There continues to be a 6 week waiting list at the hospital. Also, they are still only doing procedures under 13.6 week gestation. Even without adding the confidentiality or adequate care concerns that come with hospital abortions, it is easy to see why clinic services remain so essential in our province. Instead of TeleCare, we refer folk to Action Canada who supply people with information about abortion from a supportive volunteer. They are a fantastic organization and have compiled a directory compiled for services in each province. (1-888-642-2725 or http://www.sexualhealthandrights.ca/)

RJNB victoriously rang in the new year with Clinic 554, which opened its doors in January. Clinic 554 also runs a family practice four days a week. They have taken on 600 patients from the family doctor waiting list, and is also accepting LGBTQ patients, as well as HIV+ and Hep C+ patients. Clinic 554 continues to prioritize the most marginalized folks in our community (and those who have to travel to it). Due to the government’s refusal to pay for procedures performed in clinic settings (despite providing better care and being cheaper than hospital abortions), patients seeking abortion services continue to pay out of pocket ($700-$850).

Vitalité, the health authority that was already been performing abortions in Chaleur Hospital in Bathurst and George Dumont hospital in Moncton, chose not to increase access to abortion services in other hospitals despite the amendment of 84-20. Horizon has recently announced that it will be allowing abortion services at the Moncton City Hospital. While increasing services in Moncton in lieu of providing additional services in any other part of the province is a slap in the face of rural New Brunswickers, we are grateful that a third location has opened which provides Medicare funded services.

Clinic 554 is a model of reproductive justice that we would like to see implemented across New Brunswick. Clinic 554 is patient-driven and committed to best practices, respect, inclusiveness, equity, advocacy, and patient empowerment. Clinic 554 believes “healthcare is a patient-driven process centered upon caring, safety, and respect. We believe harm-reduction is an essential approach to healthcare, and that patients have a right to self-affirming services. We are committed to sex-positive, gender-celebratory care, anti-racist and feminist practices, and full-scope reproductive care, including abortions.”

We see our struggles in the context of other important social justice movements of New Brunswick. We also realize that success for any of us means working for all of us. To that end we are proud to support and are honoured to be backed by the Fredericton Youth Feminists, NB Families for Midwives, Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, Cinema Politica Fredericton, New Brunswick Federation of Labour, Fredericton District Labor Council, CUPE New Brunswick 176, Public Service Alliance, NB Coalition for Pay Equity. The struggles of our partners ARE reproductive justice issues.

It is our partnerships and collaboration across struggles that not only make us strong, but which enable us change the game and work outside a system that benefits from silenced and siloed struggles.

We are still lobbying the government to support clinic services. Until then, we continue to look into different ways of assisting patients to pay for clinic abortions. We are excited to host a reproductive health clinic, which sees patients from across the Maritimes and which specializes in LGBTQ health. The hard work of this past year, and of the decades of activism by New Brunswick feminists, have not only increased access to desperately needed services but reaffirmed that New Brunswickers must demand better.

For more information on abortion access in New Brunswick, check out our zine!

Abortion and Reproductive Justice- The Unfinished Revolution II

cmacquarrie — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 20:00:52 +0000

http://www.socsci.ulster.ac.uk/irss/070915.html

International Conference
2/3rd June 2016
Ulster University, Belfast, Northern Ireland

On behalf of the Organising Committee we would like to invite you to attend the Abortion and Reproductive Justice- The Unfinished Revolution II, an international conference to be hosted by the Institute of Research in Social Sciences (IRISS) Ulster University, Northern Ireland. The conference seeks to build on inter-disciplinary learning about access to abortion, activism and abortion politics by posing the question “how does abortion sit within the reproductive justice framework?”

The lives, bodies and sexuality of women, people who are transgender, intersex, lesbian, gay and bi-sexual, people who are incarcerated, especially people of colour, those without economic resources and those with disabilities, are controlled, regulated and stigmatized, and politically and culturally policed in many societies. Reproductive justice is an integral part of the global human rights framework, with access to sexual and reproductive health services having long been recognised as crucial to a person’s health and well-being. Academics addressing matters related to reproductive justice and abortion including sexual and reproductive health are invited to make theoretical and empirical contributions from across disciplines from both historical and contemporary perspectives.

Call for papers
Information

Committee

Speakers

If you wish to present a paper / deliver a presentation at the conference please follow the link to the call for papers here.

KEY DATES

Abstract submission:
10 September to 1 November 2015

Early bird registration:
available until 14 February 2016

Provisional programme:
available after 1 March 2016

Conference:
2nd and 3rd June 2016

For further information please contact RJConf@ulster.ac.uk.

Creating change with networking

cmacquarrie — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 21:10:36 +0000

RAARN Reproductive Activism and Abortion Research Network

Shannon Stettner & Colleen MacQuarrie

The purpose for Reproductive Activism and Abortion Rights Network (RAARN) is to create a dynamic and interactive online environment for people dedicated to enhancing reproductive justice options. Our goal is to use RAARN as an inclusive resource for scholars, advocates, and activists to share their thoughts, their work, and their strategies for creating change with similarly motivated others.

The idea for RAARN grew out of the recognition that undertaking research is often a solitary endeavour, especially as the body of scholars without permanent academic homes grows. RAARN is a place where you can reach out to other scholars studying similar topics. It also emerged from a desire to help bridge connections among and between front-line activists and academic-activists.

As we grow, the website will offer a virtual networking space where you can access a range of people and their work dedicated to reproductive activism in general and abortion scholarship/advocacy in particular. You can read blogs by advocates and scholars reflecting on the status and trends for reproductive equity in Canada and internationally. The whole website is searchable so that you can locate information about specific topics or particular regions or activities and publications. Membership is free and members can carry out dialogues on the blogs to enhance collaborative knowledge creation in the network. Members may link their pertinent information including resources they wish to share and contact information for further collaborations. Users can access papers, photos, and videos starting with the originating conference programme with subsequent conferences adding to the archive.

Anyone can search RAARN and link to the resources but only members get to place their information on the website. There is no fee to join, but you must apply and membership can be revoked if you violate the principles of respectful communication. To apply, fill out the application form and send relevant links. Once approved a member can participate in the commenting function of the blogs, have their information available including links to their cv, writing, and calls for action and organizing in their region.

In upcoming blogs we will be highlighting various regions of Canada and internationally for what is happening for abortion access and reproductive equity. If you are interested in writing a blog post about abortion and reproductive justice in your area or in sharing your research, please send us an email. Stay tuned, and get involved!

Our next guest blog will be by Reproductive Justice New Brunswick to highlight what is happening in that Canadian province.