COLUMN: Viewpoint – Dismayed by abortion ban

I was dismayed last week to learn North Dakota, our closest southern neighbour, has officially made abortions illegal. Evidence shows banning abortions increases their number. Since Roe v. Wade was struck down in the United States their abortion rates have reached highs not seen in over a decade. Research proves countries with broad access to legal abortion and contraception have the lowest abortion rates.

I was particularly struck by the North Dakota news, because just the day before the story broke, I attended the launch of Manitoba author Harriet Zaidman’s book What Friends Are For. It’s a fictional novel set in early 1980s Winnipeg. It’s been on the best seller list at McNally Robinson Booksellers for many weeks. The main character is a teenage girl who is raped by her school’s star athlete. She wants an abortion, but before 1988, that was almost impossible to access. An older friend takes her to the Dr. Henry Morgenthaler Clinic which has just opened in Winnipeg. She manages to get an abortion, but the evening she is at the medical facility, it is raided by the police. The raid is not fictional. It actually happened.

A clinic worker who was arrested and jailed that night, spoke at Harriet’s book launch, as did someone who served on the clinic’s board of directors at the time. They made it clear the fight to legalize abortion, and make it part of mainstream healthcare in Manitoba, was long and challenging.

Harriet Zaidman said she was motivated to research and write her novel when Roe v. Wade was overturned in the United States. She was afraid that if abortion could be made illegal there, it could happen in Canada too. Harriet thought it was important that young people be informed and educated, so they would understand abortion has not always been available here in Canada and is not something to be taken for granted. Her book is directly targeted at an older teen audience.

We know what needs to be done to lower abortion rates and it’s not banning abortions. Young people require comprehensive sex education classes that teach them about many different methods of birth control, not only abstinence. Birth control should be free. Fortunately, our current provincial government recently implemented that benefit. Family medical care needs to be readily available. That’s something Canada struggles with due to a lack of physicians, still our infant mortality rate remains lower than in America where quality maternity care often depends on income.

Paid leave for new parents also lowers abortion rates. The fact we have parental leave, as well as other social supports in our country, may explain why our abortion rates, unlike those of our southern neighbours, have declined or remained stable in recent years. Financial insecurity is often the reason for abortions and Canada needs to address that, perhaps with a guaranteed income. We also need to change attitudes towards women that allow men to think they are permitted to treat them in violent ways, which can result in unwanted pregnancy.

In Harriet’s book, the girl who finds herself pregnant, is fortunate to have an understanding high school teacher and an older schoolmate to help her, since her parents are going through a challenging time and their daughter feels she can’t add to their burdens. Hopefully young women in North Dakota who are dealing with an unwanted pregnancy will also be able to find allies and friends who can be of assistance, since their state government is placing them in such an untenable situation and failing to accord them the right to make decisions about their own bodies.