Legalization Of Abortion In Canada

The first Criminal law for abortion in Canada was passed in 1869 which punished those who obtained an abortion with a penalty of life imprisonment. A women only faced a penalty of two years if she, herself was convicted. The law was created in order to protect women from dangerous procedures performed under uncertified physicians. Many, however, argued that it did not focus enough on the provisions of the mother in question and as a result, this new law faced scrutiny from physicians, lawyers and citizens alike (Hargreaves). Later, when the Canadian Criminal Code was consolidated in 1892, the law on abortion (created using the British Offences against the Person Act) also criminalized abortions by a physician and/or citizens. Additionally, …show more content…
As a result, the Federal Standing Committee of Health and Welfare had begun considering making changes to the abortion laws. Additionally Dr. Henry Morgentaler, a later defining figure in the Pro Choice Movement, argued for the repeal of abortion laws while representing the Humanist Fellowship of Montreal. Later, in 1967, then Prime Minister, Lester B. Pearson intended to change the abortion law via a new bill; a 72-page Ominous bill containing over 100 clauses including those involving changes to the current abortion laws. The bill was reintroduced in 1968 by Justice John Tucker under Prime Minster Pierre Trudeau and it was voted and passed in Canada on May 1969. Only 55 members of the parliament voted against the bill and this ratio of individuals consisted of a majority of Conservatives. The bill decriminalized contraception and allotted abortion under such circumstances that a therapeutic abortion committee approved of the procedure. According to Hargreaves, author of Access to Abortion to Canada, “the indicators for abortion broke down into five categories: danger to life; danger to health (physical or mental); eugenic (fetal distress); criminological or juridical (rape and incest); and socio-economic” (Hargreaves). Additionally, instead of defining the circumstances in which abortion was permissible, the bill (or a …show more content…
Dr. Henry Morgentaler protested the nature of the law and opened his own abortion clinic in Montreal. However, the process he strived to make was impended when his clinic was raided in 1970 and he was charged with several offences. He then later reached out to the media to reveal he had performed more than five thousand safe abortions and proceeded to conduct a demonstration that was broadcast on national television. He was then given new criminal charges which were acquitted by a jury, but the following year the Court of Appeal reversed his acquittal and he was sentenced to eighteen months in prison. However, the movement did not stop with the arrest of a well-known figure in the Pro Choice cause; this notion was proven when a petition with more than one million signatures was delivered to Parliament. Morgentaler was later released after only serving ten months when the federal justice minister set aside his original convention and ordered a retrial. Morgentaler was also acquitted of the original charge given after the raid of his Montreal clinic. In fact, all charges were completely dropped against him when a Parti Québécois government was

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