03) 25 YEARS AFTER MORGENTALER

Abridged from a longer Rebel Youth article, at http://rebelyouth-magazine.blogspot.ca

            As Canadians celebrate the 25th anniversary of the historic Morgentaler decision which decriminalized abortion, three Conservative MPs - Maurice Vellacott (Saskatoon‑Wanuskewin), Leon Benoit (Vegreville‑Wainwright), and Wladyslaw Lizon (Mississauga East‑Cooksville) - want to push women's reproductive rights back into the dark ages.

            In a letter to the RCMP Commissioner, the MPs demand a "national investigation" into abortions after 19 weeks gestation, calling them "possible murders."

            "From 2000 to 2009 in Canada, there were 491 abortions, of 20 weeks gestation and greater that resulted in live births. This means that the aborted child died after it was born," reads the letter dated Jan. 23.

            The MPs cited Christian fundamentalist blogger Patricia Maloney (who also runs the "Ultimately faith is the only key to the universe" blog). These stats, however, result from a peculiar reporting anomaly in the Canadian Vital Statistics Programme, not actual live‑born fetuses; modern abortion providers use techniques to ensure this never happens.

            According to the Criminal Code, a child is a human being when it emerges completely from the womb.

            Women's rights activists call the letter another nasty attempt to bully women and re‑open the Parliamentary debate on this issue. The opposition NDP also highlighted the contradiction between the Prime Minister officially denouncing the motion from the floor, but in practice allowing members of his ultra‑right party to re‑open the discussion.

            In Ontario, Tim Hudak, leader of the Progressive Conservatives, has also vowed to re‑open the abortion debate if elected.

            Last fall, many Canadians were shocked when Rona Ambrose, Minister for Status of Women, voted in support of the anti-choice Motion 312, claiming that she wished to "raise concern about discrimination by sex‑selection abortion."

            The failed motion found strong supporters in the Conservative caucus, including 10 cabinet ministers and long‑time anti‑choice activist Jason Kenney, according to Anjali Kulkarni, Melissa Graham and Jesse McLaren in Rabble.ca. Their article, "Sexism, ableism and other anti‑choice claims" notes that Motion 312 acted as a "launch pad" for Motion 408, which calls on "the House [to] condemn discrimination against females occurring through sex‑selective pregnancy termination."

            The petition supporting the motion claims "millions of girls have been lost through sex‑selective abortion" and Parliament must "condemn this worst form of discrimination against females." But research shows sex‑selective abortions account for less than 0.035 per cent of abortions in Canada.

            "Bad science aside, the purpose of this motion is inherently racist in nature and seeks to racially stereotype Indian communities in Canada and stigmatize them," the Rabble authors note.

            "[W]omen must be at the center of their own decision [about reproductive rights and control of their bodies]," Alexa Conradi for Fédération des femmes du Québec (FFQ) wrote in Le Devoir about the Tory motion and sex‑selective abortion. "We promote the empowerment of women and the fight against systems of oppression. When there is tension between the two, it is important not to introduce new forms of social control that women lose control over their lives and their bodies. It is important to trust the judgment of women how to deal with prejudice and discrimination they face. Fighting sexism with sexism is not progress."

            The FFQ makes the case that women and girls do not need such protection, they need a society with full equality.

25 years after Morgentaler victory

            The renewed attacks on abortion come a quarter of a century after the Supreme court ruling in the Morgentaler case.             Honouring the anniversary, Anand Grover, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Right to Health, wrote that "States are required to respect the right to health of women by not interfering with their right to autonomy and right to privacy and dignity all of which are critical to the right to sexual and reproductive health.

            "The right to health also mandates States to ensure that quality health facilities, goods and services are available and accessible to all, without discrimination. This requires the removal of economic, physical and legal barriers to healthcare services, including for abortion. Criminalization is an impediment to the successful realization of the right to health of women and exposes them to the risks associated with unsafe and illegal abortions."

            As Viki Sappora of the National Abortion Federation wrote recently in the Vancouver Sun, "Before Jan. 28, 1988, abortion was permitted only in very limited circumstances. Hospitals with Therapeutic Abortion Committees could approve and provide abortion care only in cases of life or health endangerment. In order to obtain a legal abortion, women were forced to face an intimidating process of going before a hospital committee to petition for care. [...] It is estimated during this time that 35,000 to 120,000 illegal abortions took place each year. And we may never know the actual number of women who sacrificed their lives and health through back alley or self‑induced abortions."

            Today, the benefits of decriminalizing abortion are clear: abortion rates have steadily declined since 1997; almost all abortions occur early in pregnancy; maternal deaths and complications from abortion are very low; abortion care is fully funded and integrated into the healthcare system (improving accessibility and safety); further legal precedents have advanced women's equality by affirming an unrestricted right to abortion; and public support for abortion rights has increased.

            The victory for reproductive rights was won through hard struggle.

            In 1970, the Vancouver Women's Caucus organized the first national feminist protest to liberalize the abortion law. The Abortion Caravan travelled 4,828 kilometres to Ottawa, where 500 women demonstrated for two days demanding legal access to abortion. Thirty women chained themselves to the gallery in the House of Commons, closing Parliament for the first time in Canadian history, and giving voice to women who were unable to legally obtain the abortion care they needed.

            The struggle, however, continues. According Karen McVeigh writing in the British newspaper The Guardian "Hundreds of women have been arrested, convicted, jailed, detained in mental institutions or forced to endure medical procedures as a result of the `criminalisation of pregnancy' over the last four decades [in the US]", including "413 criminal and civil cases across 44 states involving the arrests, detentions and equivalent deprivations of pregnant women's liberty between 1973 and 2005 [and] a further 250 cases since 2005."

            Likewise, The Tyee reports that "in Canada and the U.S. combined there have been eight murders of abortion providers since 1997, 17 attempted murders, 41 clinic bombings and 175 clinics torched by arsonists. For the same time period, the organization reports 1400 acts of clinic vandalism, 179 assaults against clinic staff and clients and 763 clinic blockades."

            On campuses, anti‑abortion groups intimidate students with stunts like handing out plastic fetuses, or displaying large pictures of babies to invoke shame in young women. The issue has become a battle‑ground topic for the right wing, who call it a matter of free speech.

            The same claim was heard last month in Abbotsford, BC, when the mayor refused to ask for the removal of a "Cemetery of the Innocent" on a farmer's field. The field contains hundreds of small white crosses symbolizing abortions.

            Women still find difficulties in accessing abortion. As Rebel Youth reported last year, women in rural and remote areas are particularly disadvantaged. Overall the number of abortion providers in hospitals is slightly dropping in Canada.

            And in PEI abortions are in a legal grey area ‑ not permitted in practice and provincial law. A 1988 resolution, passed in the legislature just after Morgentaler, is the province's last word on the subject, saying "life begins at conception, and any policy that permits abortion is unacceptable." PEI women's groups chose the anniversary of the Morgentaler decision to stage a series of protests of the policy.

(The above article is from the March 1-15, 2013, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)