Starting in the late 1960s, Dr. Henry Morgentaler sacrificed the next 20 years of his life in a heroic struggle to win reproductive rights for women. Finally, in 1988, the Supreme Court’s historic Morgentaler decision repealed Canada’s abortion law completely. The law had resulted in unequal access and arbitrary obstacles for women seeking abortions, thereby violating their constitutional rights. One justice recognized the abortion decision as a highly personal one that was protected under a woman’s right to liberty and freedom of conscience.

After the law was struck down, access to abortion improved significantly, with legal clinics opening in several provinces. Canada’s abortion rate has since become moderate and stable, with numbers declining slightly in recent years. The lack of restrictions has also allowed abortions to be performed earlier and safer — 90% occur by 12 weeks of gestation, and less than 0.3% after 20 weeks gestation. The latter are done only under extreme circumstances, such as severe fetal abnormalities or life-threatening maternal health problems.

The fact that Canadian women and doctors act in a timely and responsible manner in the absence of criminal sanctions proves that no laws are needed to limit or regulate abortion. Such laws in other countries are based on patriarchal assumptions that women’s main role is to be mothers; women cannot make abortion decisions rationally or without coercion; and therefore, motherhood must be state-enforced. But pregnancies are often unwelcome or ill-advised for a wide variety of reasons. Women are independent beings with rights, and children and motherhood are both too valuable to ever be forced onto someone.

A wonderful legacy of the Morgentaler decision is Canada’s management of abortion, not as a crime, but as essential healthcare that saves and improves women’s lives. Our experience with no abortion law has become the envy of many people around the world. It’s a model we should proudly showcase and encourage other countries to emulate. (…)

Source: Canoe.ca, Canada
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Features/2007/12/13/4723055-sun.html