The Trudeau government wants to “increase the clarity” of the Canada Health Act to better force the provinces to guarantee access to abortion. Nor does he close the door to the creation of a new law on the issue, a move that raises the doubts of the opposition.
“I don’t rule out [de légiférer sur l’avortement]but that’s not the only way to do it. […] We are open to using any and all tools we have to ensure that the provinces are protecting access to abortion,” Justin Trudeau said in a press scrum on Wednesday.
In the aftermath of a media leak that suggests a significant decline in the right to abortion in the United States, the Prime Minister says he has entrusted his Minister of Health, Jean-Yves Duclos, and his Minister for Women, Marci Ien, the mission to “quickly” look at this file. However, he provided no timeline and few details.
Liberal sources confirm that the talk so far is only to improve the Canada Health Act and federal regulations. This law currently allows Ottawa to reduce its transfers to provinces that restrict access to abortion.
“There are mechanisms for compliance with this law that need to be improved, because there is still, in 2022, in certain places across the country, difficulty for women not only to have access to information, but also to services,” said Minister Duclos on Wednesday.
Abortion was legalized in Canada when the Supreme Court struck down its ban in 1988 — not by a law passed in Parliament. It is the responsibility of the provinces to ensure access to this intervention; the federal government can, at most, withhold funds intended for the provinces that do not make this treatment sufficiently accessible.
In particular, Ottawa has cut money intended for New Brunswick in recent years, but only about $200,000 in total, according to federal annual reports compiled by The duty. Ontario also suffered, but for as little as $13,000.
Yet both of them at the head of pro-choice parties, neither the leader of the Bloc Québécois nor that of the New Democratic Party (NDP) had much appetite for a federal law that would come once and for all to regulate the right to abortion.
For the Bloc Québécois Yves-François Blanchet, such a framework risks representing an interference in the jurisdiction of Quebec, a province where the right to abortion is not debated. “There is the risk that the approach, one, as well intentioned as it may be, will create constraints, and two, once again, since it becomes a health issue, that the federal government wants to come up with what will be the equivalent of a standard imposed on the provinces,” he said.
Jagmeet Singh said that in his opinion, “the real concern of women is access to abortion”. According to him, the Liberals have not fulfilled their promise to improve access, in seven years in power. “What’s the point of having a right, if you don’t have access to that right? »
Louise Langevin, professor at the Faculty of Law of Laval University, goes even further: she believes that a Canadian law on abortion would be a very bad idea. “We have proven in Canada that we do not need an abortion law,” she argues, listing the Supreme Court decisions that have reiterated from different angles the right of women to end their pregnancy. A law carries the risk of more restrictions, she notes. “Me, I’m always afraid of a law. Right now it’s not perfect, [mais] it’s not that bad. »
The author of an academic work on the question published in 2020 recalls that Quebec women still experience problems accessing abortion, including a wait of several weeks. However, it is up to the Quebec government to solve this problem, not at the federal level.
Conservatives taken to task
Anticipation of U.S. Supreme Court reversal of landmark ruling Roe v. wade on the right to abortion, in effect for nearly 50 years, inspired attacks north of the border by several members of the Trudeau government against the Conservative opposition.
Families, Children and Social Development Minister Karina Gould accused the Conservatives of remaining silent on the issue “because 74% of them are anti-abortion”, citing figures released in 2021 by the Coalition for the right to abortion in Canada.
However, this organization attaches this label to elected officials who are nevertheless rejected by pressure groups opposed to abortion, such as Quebec MP Alain Rayes, who wrote on Twitter on Tuesday her support for women’s right to choose. “What is happening in the United States is concerning. I will always stand up for my two daughters and all women. »
See: What is “Roe v. Wade”?
Asked about this by journalists on Wednesday, he confirmed that his party had “pro-life” elected officials, but believes that “the majority of [ses] brothers and sisters are pro-choicers like [lui] “. He accused the Trudeau government of having done nothing to improve the accessibility of abortion, and of “playing partisanship” with this file.
In an email addressed to To have to, a Campaign for Life official said 39 Conservative MPs received his endorsement, about a third of the caucus. Other elected officials could however be anti-abortion without having been identified as such, it is specified.
The day before, a Bloc motion reiterating the “free choice” of women to have an abortion or not was defeated in the Commons, for lack of unanimous consent of the deputies. The Bloc’s Deputy House Leader, Christine Normandin, later claimed to have heard “pretty resounding ‘no’s’ from the Conservative benches”.
With The Canadian Press