Canadian activists mobilize

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On Sat., May 27, supporters of women's right to choose abortion will march in Toronto, Canada, from the Morgenthaler clinic to the Campaign for Life Coalition headquarters, organizers of Toronto Operation Rescue. The Ontario Coalition for Abortion Clinics (OCAC) called this demonstration around three demands: Stop Operation Rescue, oppose any new abortion laws, and full access to free abortions.

Cherie MacDonald, OCAC spokesperson and a member of Socialist Challenge/Gauche Socialiste, described the assault on reproductive freedom launched by the Canadian government and right-wing bigots. She emphasized that it was a massive women's movement with strong support from organized labor that led to increased availability of safe, legal abortions. She stressed the need to continue visible protests to defeat the current attacks.

The 1969 "liberal" law Before 1969, abortion was illegal in Canada unless the woman's life was in immediate danger. In 1969, as part of a new law regulating sexuality, the Trudeau government backed a so-called liberal abortion law. Under this law, a woman needing an abortion would present her case to a Therapeutic Abortion Committee (TAC) composed of three doctors, not including the doctor who would perform the abortion, at an accredited hospital. The woman could only obtain a legal abortion if this committee ruled the continuation of the pregnancy would endanger her life or health.

Given Canada's large expanses of sparsely populated areas, many communities don't have accredited hospitals with four doctors and therefore couldn't possibly provide legal abortions. Where such accredited hospitals existed, very few set up TACs. In others, the TACs approved less than one abortion per year.

MacDonald said the women's movement organized against this law from the beginning, explaining that allowing a committee of doctors to decide whether a woman could have an abortion denied women their democratic right to control their own bodies. They also stressed the law's discriminatory aspects since legal abortions were largely limited to women in metropolitan centers like Montreal and Toronto. They pointed out that the TACs resulted in unnecessary delays, forcing women to have abortions later in their pregnancies, thereby increasing the health risks.

In 1970, women organized a cross-Canada march to Ottowa to demand access to abortion. This caravan started in Vancouver and stopped in cities and towns along the way to hold tribunals and gather testimony from women. This action put the federal government, which had prided itself on its "liberal" law, on notice that women would not settle for laws that continued to deny them their basic rights as human beings.

Dr. Morgenthaler's clinics

In the early 1970s, Dr. Morgenthaler opened his first abortion clinic in Quebec. MacDonald emphasized that this clinic grew out of the active women's movement and strong nationalist movement in Quebec.

Morgenthaler was arrested and tried. Even though the jury was entirely composed of Catholics-and all women of child bearing age were excluded—it found Morgenthaler innocent. Although two later juries also found Morgenthaler innocent, he was imprisoned when an appeals court overturned the jury verdict.

As a result of increasing pressure from women and labor, the ruling Parti Quebecois overturned the charges against Morgenthaler and wrote a letter to the federal government saying the abortion law couldn't be enforced in Quebec.

In 1982, women in Toronto mounted a campaign to force the Ontario government to issue a similar statement declaring the law unenforceable. Before Dr. Morgenthaler opened the first abortion clinic in Toronto, the Ontario Federation of Labor and a broad spectrum of women's organizations expressed their support for reproductive freedom.

When the clinic opened, Morgenthaler was arrested. He admitted to violating the federal abortion law by performing abortions on the demand of individual women, but argued that this was necessary. Again, a jury found him innocent and again the government appealed.

In February 1985, buoyed by this government appeal, anti-choice bigots organized a week of actions demanding that the clinic be closed. On a few days' notice, over 8000 people turned out to counter these attacks and demand the clinic remain open.

OCAC spokesperson Cherie MacDonald stated that such visible mass support allowed two clinics to remain open for five years even though they were clearly illegal.

New ruling, but more attacks In January 1988, in a ruling that echoed many of the objections of the women's movement, the Canadian Supreme Court declared the abortion law unconstitutional. Since then both the Conservatives and Liberals have pressed for a new federal abortion law.

MacDonald explained that an impressive list of endorsers supports the unanimous position of the women's and labor movements that there should be no new abortion law.

MacDonald pointed to the various restrictions which have been discussed in Parliament, from bills based on gestational age to a return to the pre-1969 ban on abortions except to save the woman's life to attempts to protect fetal "rights."

MacDonald explained that there has also been an attempt to whittle away at the Supreme Court decision on a province-byprovince basis. In many provinces, access remains severely restricted. Nova Scotia recently passed a law outlawing free standing abortion clinics and threatened to impose a $500 per day fine on a clinic scheduled to open in Halifax in June. Other provinces have attempted to deny funding under the provincial health-insurance coverage.

MacDonald stated that the best way to counter these attacks is by a well-coordinated campaign in both English Canada and Quebec. Abortion rights activists are working toward coordinated binational demonstrations Color in this country can be actively involved and decision-makers in the reproductive choice movement. This program seeks to identify and address not only reproductive rights issues but also the reproductive health-care concerns from the unique perspective of women of color."

The conference agenda was really quite intense in terms of time-all of our time on Friday and Saturday was involved in strategy. This was not a spectator conference.

The conference participants put together "wish lists" of demands. The lists took up the issue of reproductive rights in its broader context.

I can't think of a single group that didn't have universalized national health care and 24hour day care on its agenda. The lists also included union-scale minimum wage, the revamping of the foster-care system, and the in all major cities in the fall.

Clinics in Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg have been targeted by Operation Rescue. Although Operation Rescue has attempted six blockades in Toronto since last Oct. 29, they have been unsuccessful in shutting down the clinics or canceling the appointments.

In every instance, the women's movement has taken to the streets in sufficient numbers to prevent this from happening. The breadth of support has been shown by the participation of labor officials and Metro City councilors.

In March, 4000 people participated in an International Women's Day rally in Toronto. They marched to the Campaign for Life Coalition headquarters where they presented a black coffin filled with wire coat hangers as a dramatic statement of what abortion restrictions mean for poor women. MacDonald said such actions have helped increase public support by exposing the anti-choice activists as harassers of women.

Full access to free abortion!

MacDonald said that OCAC opposes the privatization of health care. Currently only the doctors' fees at abortion clinics are covered by the provincial health plan. Individual women patients must pay for the other expenses.

Although Dr. Morgenthaler has offered to turn his clinics over to the provincial governments to be run as public clinics, his offer has not been accepted. OCAC demands that the provincial government take initiatives to set up public clinics, similar to those in Quebec, providing the full range of reproductive health service.

MacDonald added that OCAC seeks full access to abortion for all women and that this can only be accomplished if no women has to travel a great distance, speak a foreign language, or pay in order to have an abortion.

MacDonald ended by stating that over 100 people participated in the Canadian contingent at the April 9 March for Women's Equality/Women's Lives in Washington. MacDonald, who helped organize participation from Toronto, explained that whatever the U.S. Supreme Court decides will be reflected in the decisions of the Canadian Supreme Court and Parliament.

repeal of all immigration laws.

The lists also included a demand for paid parental leave from work for childbirth. Right now there is legislation for unpaid parental leave for six months. All of us at the conference said, "We have to do a reality check right here. How many of us can afford to be off six months, both Mama and Daddy, or even just one of us, to stay home with our baby? That's unreal." We all wanted six months' paid leave, and some people wanted a year leave.

Unfortunately, the conference did not project any specific national actions to fight for these demands. For instance, South African Women's Day on Aug. 9 could have been targeted as a date to organize around. Instead, conference participants were encouraged to go back to their groups and continue organizing on a local level.

However, through raising the demands of women of color, we broadened the definition of "reproductive rights." As women of color