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I was walking through Toronto last week when my friend and tour guide stopped me at a small parking lot, crammed between two artsy, eclectic-looking shops. I naturally asked him why this particular parking lot was of any significance. Then, I noticed the burn marks on the shop walls facing the lot. This, Jeff explained, was the former site of an abortion clinic, bombed into oblivion and as yet not rebuilt.
In Windsor, the previous week, fellow university journalists from all over Canada shared in my shock and horror following the Brookline abortion clinic shootings in Boston. Another friend compiled a package of media clippings relating to the shootings. While he was distributing it, another reporter said to him, "You know, now everyone is going to be covering abortion in the spring semester." I guess that person was right.
So much media attention in recent years has focussed on the gains of the "pro-life" or "anti-choice" movement (labels changing with your political stripe, of course). The emphasis has been on attacks on abortion rights, both legislative and violent.
I would be willing to bet that very few students today know the history of abortion rights in Canada, or even North America. The phrase "Roe vs. Wade" has become culturally entrenched, along with the name "Morgentaler", but how many of us can recite the former Section 251 of the Canadian Criminal Code?
What follows is a chronology of the fight for unrestricted access to abortion, in Canada and the United States.
Women have been "handling" unwanted pregnancies for centuries, millenia even; I will begin with a key point in Canadian reproductive history, the 1969 amendment to the Criminal Code. My focus is on Canada, and B.C. in particular. There may be some ommissions, but I'm just trying to recreate the background to the battles we see today.
1969: Parliament amends the Criminal Code to allow abortions in "accredited" hospitals, under the approval of a Therapeutic Abortion Committee. Hospitals are not required to create such committees, although no hospital without one can perform abortions. The amendment becomes Section 251 of the Criminal Code. Abortion has been legal in Britain since 1967, in Japan since 1948, in Russia since 1955, in the Eastern Bloc since 1967 or '68, and in Iceland, Sweden and Denmark since the 1930s; restrictions to the procedure vary from country to country.
1970: New York state legalises abortion and sees a drop in the number of teenage mothers.
1972: Zambia becomes the first African country to legalise abortion.
1973: Roe vs. Wade. The U.S. Supreme Court rules that banning abortion is unconstitutional, effectively clearing the way for "abortion on demand" in the United States.
Early 1970s (in general): Dr. Henry Morgentaler speaks out against the horrors of back-alley, "coat-hanger" abortions, and against the Canadian laws he believes are responsible for them. Women begin to come to him, requesting abortions; he intially refuses on the grounds that abortions performed outside hospitals are a criminal offense, punishable by life imprisonment. Eventually, though, he is convinced that the only way to change the law is to flout it, and begins establishing free-standing abortion clinics.
1974: Morgentaler is acquitted by a Quebec jury of 13 counts of procuring miscarriages in pregnant women. His acquittal is overturned by the Quebec Court of Appeals, whose decision is upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada. Morgentaler goes to jail.
1975: Morgentaler is again charged with performing abortions outside of accredited hospitals. He is also gaining prominence as the inventor of the vacuum-aspirator method of abortion, the cleanest and safest method of terminating pregnancy, to date.
1978: Select B.C. hospitals begin offering the "morning after" pill free, amid protests from pro-life groups. The morning after pill is considered an abortion agent by many.
1979: The Ontario Supreme Court rules that a lawyer cannot represent the rights of the "unborn" in court; however, in a Nova Scotia case, a guardian is appointed by the courts for a fetus.
Late 1970s (in general): A wave of anti-abortion violence explodes, as U.S. clinics and Planned Parenthood offices are vandalised and fire-bombed. Clinic employees are threatened, and in some cases, assaulted.
1980: A battle for seats on the Richmond hospital board ensues, between pro-life and pro-choice activists. Hospital boards determine whether or not to create Therapeutic Abortion Committees, and thus whether or not a hospital will perform abortions. Pro-life groups lose this fight, but continue to try to influence hospital board elections throughout the 1980s.
1981: In the United States, Republican Senator Jesse Helms and Democrat Henry Hyde introduce near-identical bills in the House of Representatives. The intent of both bills is to recriminalise abortion. These attempts fail, but Medicaid (the U.S. Medicare) ceases to cover the costs of abortion in cases of rape and incest.
1982: The Supreme Court of Canada rules against Joseph Borowski, who challenged the legality of Section 251. Borowski claims that fetuses are granted a right to life, under Section 1 of the Canadian Bill of Rights: "the right of the individual to life, liberty . . . and the right not to be deprived thereof except by due process of law."
1983: In B.C., Morgentaler and two collegues are charged with providing abortions outside the hospital setting.
1984: The Toronto Women's Bookstore is burned down. It is believed the intended arson target is Morgentaler's abortion clinic, located above the book store. The site next to the book store had been rented by Campaign Life, an anti-choice group. Protesters harass women as they enter the clinic, and security escorts become the norm for clinic patients and employees.
January, 1985: In a single month, four separate American abortion clinics are fire-bombed.
1987: B.C. Premier Bill VanderZalm seeks tighter controls on abortion access, following the release of a study of abortion in the province. Though the report finds that all abortions met with the standards laid out in Section 251, VanderZalm claims, "What we have now is basically abortion on demand." He publicly questions whether that was the intent of the federal government in amending the Criminal Code. VanderZalm also threatens to shut down any free- standing abortion clinic that attempts to open in B.C.
1988: The Supreme Court of Canada rules that Section 251 is unconstitutional. Access to abortion in this country is no longer legislated in any way.
1989: B.C.'s first free-standing abortion clinic, the Everywoman's Health Centre, is established. The Conservative government introduces Bill C-43 in an attempt to reinstate abortion in the Criminal Code. The minister responsible for this legislation is Kim Campbell. Chantal Daigle wins the right to an abortion in the Supreme Court. It strikes down an injunction granted to her boyfriend which has prevented her from terminating her pregnancy. The ruling comes too late though, as Daigle has already had the operation in the U.S.
February, 1990: Bill C-43 is defeated. The Tories, seeking compromise, alienate both pro-life and pro-choice groups.
1991: In Nova Scotia, the Medical Services Act (used to prosecute Morgentaler for performing abortions at free- standing clinics) is ruled unconstitutional.
1992: The provincial government in Newfoundland refuses to pay for abortions performed in clinics, even though this results in higher costs for the province. The anti-choice campaign of harassment and violence is stepped up, as Morgentaler's Toronto clinic is gasoline-bombed and destroyed. He vows to rebuild. In B.C., Health Minister Elizabeth Cull announces government funding of $1 million for the Everywoman's Health Centre and the Elizabeth Bagshaw clinic. Pro-life protesters clash with pro-choice celebrants outside the Legislature in Victoria.
1993: In Wichita, Kansas, Dr. George Tiller is shot in both arms by anti-abortionist Rachelle (Shelly) Shannon. She is sentenced to 11 years imprisonment. In Pensacola, Florida, Dr. David Gunn is shot and killed by Michael Griffen, who receives a life sentence. Gunn had been the only doctor in the area willing to perform abortions. Reverend Trosch, a Roman Catholic priest in Magnolia, Alabama, attempts to place an ad in The Mobile Register, calling Gunn's murder, "justifiable homicide."
1994: Dr. John Bayard Britton, Gunn's replacement in Pensacola, and his escort, James Barrett, are killed by former minister Paul Hill. Hill is sentenced to death for the murders. In Boston, two abortion clinics on the same street are the targets of gunfire. Two receptionists, Shannon Lowney and Leanne Nichols, are killed; at least five others are injured. John Salvi, a young hair-dressing student, is arrested for the crimes. Vancouver anti-abortion activist Gordon Watson is charged with assault and contempt of court, following an incident with a clinic employee, outside the Everywoman's Health Centre. Vancouver doctor Gary Romalis is shot in the leg by a sniper while relaxing in his home. The shooting is believed to be linked to the fact that Romalis performs abortions.
In the last decade, there have been at least 153 bomb and arson attempts on abortion clinics and Planned Parenthood offices. Clinic workers, doctors and patients have faced more than 200 death threats. In Alberta, apparently the militant and violent anti-abortion group, the Lambs of Christ have appeared.
Many abortion rights activists feel that their opposition is becoming more violent as it senses it is losing. I wonder if we can or should explain away the irony of this violent faction of the "pro-life" movement.