Abortion in Canada
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 Canadian law for the next 100 years.[9] In 1969, the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968–69 legalized therapeutic abortions, as long as a committee of doctors certified that continuing the pregnancy would likely endanger the woman's life or health.[9] In 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in R. v. Morgentaler that the existing law was unconstitutional, and struck down the 1969 Act.[10] The ruling found that the 1969 abortion law violated a woman's right to "life, liberty and security of the person" guaranteed under Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms established in 1982.[11]
In Canada, all surgical abortions are performed by a physician, with nurse practitioners, pharmacists and midwives able to provide medications for non-invasive medical abortions within nine weeks (63 days) of gestation.[12][13] Canada has had a relatively stable abortion rate since decriminalization; the rate of recorded abortion per 1000 women of childbearing age (15–44) was 10.2 in 1974, rising to 16.4 abortions per thousand women in 1997, and declining to 10.1 abortions per 1000 women in 2020.[14][15][16] However, these rates of abortion only reflect the number of abortions reported by abortion clinics and hospitals. They do not account for unreported abortions in these setting or count abortions induced by prescription drugs such as mifepristone and misoprostol taken at home, and so these official rates of abortion undercount the true rate of abortion.[15] Nevertheless, Canada has a low abortion rate overall compared to other countries,[3] with approximately 74,000 abortions reported in 2020. Roughly half of abortions occur among women aged 18 to 29 years and roughly 90% of abortions are performed within the first trimester (12 weeks).[17]
Politics
As of 2024, all federally represented political parties in Canada, as well as their leaders, support continued legal abortion access in Canada. While elected members of the Bloc Québécois, New Democratic Party, the Liberal Party of Canada, and the Green Party of Canada nearly universally support abortion rights and all these parties' MPs would be expected to vote against any hypothetical Bills that would restrict or limit abortion rights in any way,[92] the Conservative Party of Canada has both members who favour abortion rights and members who oppose them and has stated that members would be allowed to vote their conscience on any vote concerning abortion. In the past, more Conservative members have been against abortion.
The Conservative Party has had to wrestle with combining the conflicting social policies of its two predecessor parties, the moderate Progressive Conservative Party and the more right-wing Canadian Alliance, which merged in 2003. Many socially conservative Alliance supporters were angered at the prospect of Belinda Stronach, who favoured abortion rights, winning the leadership election in early 2004, while in contrast, some Progressive Conservative supporters objected during the 2004 federal election to the new party's perceived openness to legislation that would restrict abortion rights. In the March 2005 policy convention, in a narrow vote, the party voted to not introduce legislation on the subject of abortion (members can still introduce private members bills on the issue), although it condemns sex-selective abortions.[93] The party's stance on abortion is frequently voted on at the party's policy conventions. Motion 312 was introduced by Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth in 2012, calling for a House of Commons committee to determine when human life begins, but was defeated 203–91.[94] In 2013, Conservative MP Mark Warawa introduced a motion condemning discrimination against females through sex-selective abortion.[95] In 2021, Conservative Cathay Wagantall introduced a private member's bill that would prohibit a medical practitioner from performing a sex-selective abortion. Although the bill was defeated 248-82, a majority of Conservative MPs voted in favour of the bill.[96]
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 and supports a total abortion ban in Canada.[99][100] However, they never had a member elected to parliament and won about only 0.05% of the vote in the 2021 Canadian federal election. The People's Party of Canada supports banning abortion in Canada after 24 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for cases in which the life of the pregnant individual is in danger, serious fetal abnormalities, and when the pregnancy is a result of rape.[101]
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.[102][103] 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.[104] The CBC / Canadian Press story was subsequently corrected.[102] 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".[103]
Abortion rights movement
The abortion rights movement in Canada focuses on establishing abortion as a component of provincial health care plans, to ensure it is available in all regions, especially for those who couldn't afford it otherwise.
Dr. Henry Morgentaler was widely seen as the one individual personifying the Canadian abortion rights movement, but organizations such as the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL), Canadians for Choice, and the Pro-Choice Action Network also contributed significantly to advancing the abortion rights movement in Canada. CARAL folded, and has been replaced by the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, whose focus is on the objectives mentioned above. Feminist or pro-feminism organizations also contribute to promote the abortion rights approach.
The Canadian affiliate of Planned Parenthood, now known as the Canadian Federation for Sexual Health, is also in favour of abortion rights, and while it does refer pregnant women to abortion providers, it does not have a history (unlike its American counterpart) of engaging in widespread litigation in favour of legalized abortion.