Nationwide abortion bill would backfire in Canada as it did in the U.S., experts say
Global News
Just as a bill to guarantee nationwide abortion rights backfired in the U.S. Senate, a similar law would also fail here in Canada because of legislative differences, experts say.
Efforts to enact a federal law guaranteeing abortion rights nationwide in Canada would likely backfire, experts say, just as a similar effort died in the United States Senate this week.
“Canada and U.S. are in very different situations,” Joyce Arthur, executive director of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, told Global News.
In the U.S., abortion was declared a constitutional right through the 1973 decision in the Roe v Wade case. Meanwhile in Canada, abortion was decriminalized in 1988 by the Supreme Court in the case of R v Morgentaler.
Both decisions created very different paths for the neighbouring countries and how they protect reproductive rights.
“We don’t have an abortion law in Canada and we also don’t have a law regulating heart surgery or an appendectomy,” said Arthur.
“We don’t need laws regulating health care procedures. We have the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that protects people’s bodily autonomy and their life and their liberty and conscience rights, all which come into play for the right to abortion as the Morgentaler decision found.”
Although Canada chose not to put forward criminal law on the matter — allowing abortion to be treated like any other medical procedure — the U.S. legalization decision allowed for states across the country to create their own rules, restricting access for some.
Even though abortion is still currently legal, 13 states would enact so-called “trigger laws” that would ban abortions almost immediately, if the United States were to overturn Roe v Wade — a likely possibility after a draft opinion from the Supreme Court was leaked.