With the recent death of Henry Morgentaler, abortion is again making its way into the public forum. Rationality is often missing from the discussion. The language from both the pro-life and pro-choice camps is frequently highly charged with emotion and vitriol.
In my most recent column, I strive to present an informed and measured approach to abortion.
In the ultrasound images, I thought I recognized the nose
I was excited about being a
grandmother from the beginning, but when I saw the ultrasound images of the
little one at 19 weeks, I was overcome with emotion. We could clearly see the little feet, only millimeters long,
and in the profile of the face, I thought I recognized the nose. I stand in awe before the wondrous
miracle of life.
Not everyone shares my wonder.
There are some who have no compunction about terminating the life of the little
person developing in the womb. For them, abortion is a woman’s reproductive
right, a simple procedure as benign as removing a wart. For me, a child developing within the
womb is not an exclusive reproductive right, but a gift entrusted to the care
of both sexes.
The polls
With the death of Henry
Morgentaler, the famous abortion activist whose determination to provide safe
abortions for women changed Canada’s abortion law, the highly divisive issue of
abortion is once again attracting public attention in both traditional and
online media formats. Despite the
public discussion, Prime Minister Stephen Harper refuses to allow any debate on
abortion in Parliament, and a January 2013 Angus Reid poll concluded that
although “Canadians have continued mixed personal feelings on abortion…the
appetite for true legislative action is lacking.” Two-thirds of Canadians polled are unwilling to
re-open the debate on abortion.
The reluctance to formally debate
abortion is puzzling given the interest in the topic and the findings of recent
polls. Could a lack of awareness
about the absence of abortion laws in Canada explain, in part, our hesitation?
The Angus Reid poll notes “45
percent of respondents mistakenly assume that a woman can have an abortion only
during the first three months of her pregnancy”. Thirty-five percent support no restrictions on abortion, 5 percent
would ban abortion, and 60 percent “express a preference to regulate abortion
in different ways”: during the first trimester, in cases of rape, when the
mother’s life is in danger, or if the fetus has serious defects.
A 2012 Ipsos Reid poll had
similar, albeit confusing, findings: 49 percent of respondents said that there
should be no restrictions on abortion, while 45 percent felt that abortion
should be permitted only in “special circumstances”. Yet, in the same poll, 60 percent of respondents favored gestational
limits on abortion.
Coercion is a factor in many abortions
The Angus Reid poll reported that
43 percent of men and only 27 percent of women favor the status quo. This last
finding hints at a problem with abortion that does not often make its way into
the public discussion: coercion is a factor in a high percentage of abortions.
While
it is not always men who force a woman to have an abortion, the male partner
plays a critical role in the decision.
Others who may exert pressure on a woman to abort include her mother,
her father, a doctor or another medical professional.
A 2004 study, reported in
the “Medical Science Monitor”, found that 64 percent of women who had an
abortion in the United States did so because of pressure from others. This was
despite the woman’s desire to have the child. Coercion is something to bear in mind when extolling
abortion as a woman’s prerogative over her reproductive rights.
Coercion may also play a role in
female feticide, which is becoming a cause of concern in Canada. Sex selective
abortion is another area where the majority (60 percent of Canadians overall
and 66 percent of women) believes there should be laws to “outline whether a
woman can have an abortion based solely on the gender of the fetus” (Angus Reid poll on gender based abortion).
Not a rare procedure
Abortion in Canada is not a rare
procedure. In 2012, the Canadian Institute for Health Information reported 64,
641 documented abortions in Canada, excluding Quebec. Since 1979, there have been an estimated 3.5-4 million
abortions in Canada.
Still, we remain ambivalent. Harper
has read the mood of Canadians correctly. Collectively, we lack the political
will to address the legislative vacuum created when the Supreme Court reversed
Morgentaler’s conviction and struck down the abortion law in 1988.
Legal, safe and rare: its time to work on the latter
While I would prefer that we
treasured and protected the miracle of life at every stage, Canada cannot go
back to the days when the criminalization of abortion forced women into back
alleys. Abortion, to paraphrase Hilary Clinton, should be legal, safe, and
rare. Canada has the first two covered; it’s time to work on the third.
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