Status of Women Minister Martine Biron wants to strengthen Quebec women’s right to abortion. She says she is worried when she observes the decline of this right in the United States. Pierre Poilievre’s conservatives give him another reason to worry.
If women doubted it, they had additional proof this week: the right to abortion will never be acquired, even in Canada, a country often cited as an example since the Morgentaler judgment which decriminalized it in 1988. Four Supreme Court decisions have reinforced this right of Canadian women, but that does not prevent some members of the Conservative Party from constantly seeking to open a breach.
Last winter, Saskatchewan MP Cathay Wagantall introduced Private Member’s Bill C-311, which proposes to amend the Criminal Code. The goal? Making an attack on a pregnant woman an aggravating factor in sentencing. Members debated it this week in the House of Commons.
The conservatives of Pierre Poilievre – who claims to be pro-choice – ensure that their intention is not to question the right of women to terminate a pregnancy, but no one is fooled: this bill is a first step towards the recognition of the rights of an embryo or a foetus.
This is not the first attempt by this openly anti-abortion MP: in June 2021, Mme Wagantall had introduced private member’s Bill C-233 on sex-specific abortions. And in 2016, she introduced a bill that tried to make a distinction in the Criminal Code between a pregnant woman and her fetus, in the event of an assault.
Fortunately, all parties see clearly in the game of these Conservatives: Bloc, New Democrats and Liberals denounced with one voice this new offensive. And the Trudeau government took advantage of this week marked by the holding of an anti-abortion march in Ottawa to announce funding aimed at strengthening access to abortion in Canada.
PHOTO SPENCER COLBY, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Beginning of the procession of the anti-abortion demonstration of the “March for life”, Thursday in Ottawa
In Quebec, Minister Biron says she wants to “screw” the right to abortion “into the wall”. She thought about legislating. That’s a very bad idea.
Not only is the termination of pregnancy a federal issue, but the majority of jurists agree that there is no legislative vagueness surrounding abortion. Laval University law professor Louise Langevin wrote in our pages recently: “In Canada, no woman can be criminalized for having obtained an abortion, regardless of the reason or the number of weeks of pregnancy. […] Any federal or provincial law that would limit access to abortion would infringe these rights. »
A word of advice to Minister Biron: don’t open this Pandora’s box.
There are many other things the Minister can do to send a strong message in favor of abortion choice: starting with ensuring that no anti-abortion group or organization receives public money direct or indirect. The Urbania media had discovered last year that two Caquiste deputies were financing anti-abortion organizations, without knowing it, they assured, by granting a subsidy to groups presenting themselves as centers for help and support for pregnancy. We must turn off the public tap for all these groups, including associations such as the Knights of Columbus, for example, which fight against abortion.
The Minister must also ensure that the groups that disseminate false information about abortion, a common practice in these pregnancy centers as revealed by the Urbania investigation, are called to order.
The minister should also increase funding for centers for women who perform abortions as well as for organizations that provide sex and contraception education. It is often non-profit organizations that pull the devil by the tail.
As for contraception, it is high time to make it free. Too many women make (bad) choices based on their financial resources rather than their health. This is a good battle horse for the Minister of the Status of Women Biron.
Finally, M.me Biron should sit down with his health colleague, Christian Dubé, to ensure that abortion and the abortion pill are accessible in all regions of Quebec. Currently, this is not the case.
Martine Biron is right to want to oppose those who try to limit women’s rights to terminate a pregnancy. Women will never be completely immune to setbacks. But the Minister must choose the right weapons to do so.