Facing strong criticism, the Minister responsible for the Status of Women, Martine Biron, has given up on tabling a law this fall to “protect” the right to abortion. She is now working on a plan to improve access to these services, to the satisfaction of the Quebec Bar and women’s groups.
“That she did not legislate, there is nothing negative about that,” underlined Thursday the President of Quebec, Catherine Claveau, in an interview with The duty. “She understood common sense,” also said Louise Langevin, full professor at the Faculty of Law at Laval University.
In April, Minister Biron announced in The Press his intention to legislate in the fall to make the right to abortion sacred in Quebec. As the parliamentary session ends, it is clear that it has revised its intentions, since no bill to this effect is included in the order paper of the National Assembly. “Improving access to abortion is our priority,” said the minister’s press secretary, Catherine Boucher, on Thursday. “We focus on access,” she stressed.
So much the better, responded a series of groups with whom The duty spoke.
“I have had I don’t know how many conversations with the Secretariat [à la condition féminine] and the office [Biron] and, for me, it is clear, clear that this is not an avenue that she will take in the near future. So we are satisfied that she listened to us,” said Duty Jess Legault, from the Quebec Federation for Family Planning.
“The minister is of course aware of the realities on the ground in relation to the accessibility of services and means of contraception. We felt a certain listening from her and we are delighted,” also declared Marie-Andrée Gauthier, director of the Network of Regional Tables of Women’s Groups of Quebec. “We hope that it will come with actions that will benefit women in the 17 regions of Quebec. »
Priority: access
Warnings about the minister’s legislative ambitions have followed one another over the months. In June, the Bar notably warned the elected official about the perils of a law, which would open “the door to possible limitations” of the right to abortion. In September, 400 doctors did the same, demanding free access to contraceptive methods. The next day, Mme Biron had revised her position and assured that she would not move forward with her project if it were to set back the right to abortion in Quebec.
“We never doubted the minister’s intention, her pro-choice intention,” underlined Jess Legault. It’s a golden opportunity for us to look at issues of access. » She recalled that in certain regions of Quebec, you have to make “four, five or six” trips to obtain an abortion.
“I’m in Quebec. That’s a five-week wait for an instrumental abortion, and that’s not normal. So the question of abortion is a question of accessibility,” Professor Langevin also illustrated.
Minister Biron is moving towards an action plan regarding the accessibility of abortion, deduced the speakers she met. This plan should be accompanied by a budget and “a realistic and relatively short-term timetable”, underlined Mr.me Gauthier. “That would frankly be a gain and a way to really leave your mark, to stand out as Minister of the Status of Women, by ensuring accessibility and free access to services and means of contraception,” she added. .
Why not the Charter?
One of Minister Biron’s most recent meetings took place with constitutionalist Patrick Taillon in September. He put forward the idea of including the right to abortion – through “very, very precise” terms – in the Charter of human rights and freedoms, he explained to the Duty.
“To say that case law protects us and that it is the only thing that protects us, I find that there is an element of naivety in that. The proof: in the United States, the dam of jurisprudence has finally burst,” he argued, referring to the invalidation of the judgment Roe v. Wadewhich had affirmed the constitutional right to abortion throughout the United States since 1973.
In his opinion, a law on the right to abortion would be “clumsy”. On the other hand, a modification of the Charter would be desirable, a question that we ensure we have “the belt and suspenders”, he illustrated. “We are at a moment in the history of Quebec where there is a very strong consensus on these issues. Why not cash it, put it in the text and write it down, engrave it there forever, add this dam? Because perhaps in 20 years, society will no longer have the same cohesion, the same harmony,” he argued.
The Bar does not share his opinion. “When we recommend not legislating, that includes the law, the Civil Code, the Charter. It’s a law, the Charter,” recalled Mr.e Claveau. Her organization also recommended that the minister focus on issues of access to services.
After his exchanges with Mme Biron, Patrick Taillon understood that the elected official was not going to modify the Charter, but rather “make an action plan on the idea of access”. Professor Langevin, for her part, affirmed that Quebec’s “main asset” lies in the fact that it has no law on the subject of abortion. “There are four Supreme Court decisions that do the work. But there is no law that anti-choice people can attack. This is what protects us,” she stressed.