As the abortion rights debate resurfaces with vehemence in the United States, Canada, a new online poll indicates that about four in five respondents support a woman’s right to an abortion if she wants it, while 14% are against it.
Seventy percent of all respondents to the Léger and Association for Canadian Studies polls added that they were concerned about the possibility that the judgment Roe v Wade overturned in the United States, and nearly half said they thought the abortion rights situation in that country could have an effect in Canada.
“Is it the old adage that if the US sneezes, Canada catches a cold, that whatever happens in the US is bound to impact Canada? It’s sort of our way of positioning ourselves against the United States,” said Christian Bourque, Executive Vice-President of Léger.
He observed that in Canada, whenever there have been attempts to reopen the abortion debate, it has been pretty quickly shut down.
Abortion is decriminalized in Canada due to a 1988 Supreme Court ruling, but no bill has ever been passed to enshrine access in law, nor is it considered a constitutionally protected right under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
About two in three survey respondents said the Canadian government should introduce legislation to protect the right to freely choose to have an abortion.
Many advocates fear that any effort to codify abortion access into law in Canada risks triggering an erosion of these services. Limits on terminating a pregnancy are determined at the provincial or territorial level in Canada and enforced by the medical community, not the courts.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government sought to assure Canadians last week that it would protect access to safe and legal abortion, though it was not entirely clear how to achieve this. .
He said the government was reviewing the legal framework to ensure that women’s rights are properly protected under the current government and any future government.
During the last election campaign, the Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) promised to introduce regulations under the Canada Health Act to ensure that abortion services are considered medically necessary and publicly funded. . He also promised a $10 million information portal on reproductive health and rights, but this was not mentioned in the most recent federal budget.
No margin of error was attributed to the online survey of 1,534 Canadians between last Friday and Sunday.