The Minister for the Status of Women, Martine Biron, surely has very good intentions when she affirms that she wants to “screw” the right to abortion. However, with all due respect, let me say that we don’t need a new law to say what the current state of the law already tells us; the right to abortion has been legally recognized in Canada since the Morgentaler ruling in 1988. Women’s right to autonomy over their bodies was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada in Daigle c. Tremblay, also in 1989.
This right has been recognized as an integral part of the constitutional rights of women protected in the Canadian Charter in section 7. Today, one could add that the right to autonomy of decision and the right to abortion are also protected by the right to equality for women enshrined in our two charters.
The biggest problem for women right now is access to abortion services. Do all hospitals in Quebec offer abortion services? Are we still leaving the responsibility for these health interventions to private clinics in some regions, some of which are non-profit clinics? Does the difficult access to hospitals still force some women to postpone the intervention for lack of service? Is difficult access to a family doctor a barrier to getting the morning after pill? Do sex education classes introduce students to this constitutional right precisely in order to demystify and counter the prejudices that surround it?
These are the urgent challenges that the Minister for the Status of Women and her colleague from Health and Social Services must respond to. I am well aware of the noble intentions of Minister Biron, but a law would be dangerous and would risk calling into question women’s right to abortion and their autonomy.
The mere introduction of a law as such would relaunch the debate and allow those who are against abortion to demand its total or modulated ban depending on certain circumstances. As soon as it is passed, such a law would be challenged in court, and perhaps even by the federal government, which would see it as an infringement of its jurisdiction. Whereas, since 1989, there is no legal obstacle to abortion.
Moreover, remember that a new attempt to bring abortion back into the fold of criminal law is underway in Ottawa through a private bill in the House of Commons. For thirty years, more than forty bills have been tabled in the House of Commons to recriminalize abortion.
Women’s right to equality is still fragile, we must avoid weakening it even more. Like the protection of the French language or the protection of secularism, gender equality is a value that is not unanimous.
In this case, “the best is the mortal enemy of the good”. Legally, abortion is doing very well!