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TORONTO – The Winnipeg Women’s Health Clinic is stretched. The facility is one of the few abortion clinics in Manitoba, a Canadian province of 1.3 million people. She faces about 100 consultations each week and says she offers up to 30 percent more abortions than she receives from government funding.
Even before the U.S. Supreme Court collapsed Roe against Wadethe A nearly 50-year precedent that protects abortion rights in the United States, some of these inquiries about abortion were from Americans. Now the clinic, 70 miles from the North Dakota border, where an activation ban will take effect this month, is pending more.
“It’s too early to tell” whether and how much American consultations will increase. said Blandine Tona, the clinic’s program director. But even a small number could record the clinic, “so one of the things we’ve been doing is organizing, preparing.” including considering whether to offer more day abortions each week.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other Canadian leaders have condemned the U.S. Supreme Court ruling; his government has said it will not reject Americans who cannot abort at home. But with the long distances between many clinics, providers spread thin and barriers to cross-border travel, this may not be much of a solution.
Abortion is prohibited in these states. See where the laws have changed.
Canada decriminalized abortion in 1988 and abortion rights receive broad political support here. But while access has improved over the decades, it remains limited outside major metropolitan centers and depends on the ability to travel.
“We have supported people where the nearest abortion provider is several days away by car,” said Jessa Millar, who runs Action Canada’s Sexual Health and Rights hotline.
Some patients at the Women’s Health Clinic travel to Winnipeg from Kenora, Ontario, about 130 miles away. TK Pritchard, executive director of the Shore Center, which offers drug abortions in Kitchener, a city in southwestern Ontario, said it has clients in northern Ontario. It is about booking appointments for three to four weeks.
The center has received calls from a small number of people in Michigan since the demolition Roe who are curious about access to abortion in Canada, Pritchard said, but “don’t listen to people who are really looking to book appointments.”
“One of the challenges we have is that … it’s very difficult to try to keep up with the demand that already exists,” Pritchard said.
When abortion pills were marketed here in 2017, there was optimism that they would help improve access, especially in remote and rural areas. But advocates say it’s still erratic.
“Most GPs will not prescribe it and will only refer you to an abortion clinic,” said Mohini Datta-Ray, executive director of Planned Parenthood Toronto.
Jill Doctoroff, executive director of the National Abortion Federation Canada, said about 600 people have registered for her training on the prescription of the abortion pill since it was launched in April 2021. Last weekend, following the decision of the United States Supreme Court, 70 people were registered.
“What it shows is that one of the impacts of the decision is that people are recognizing that there are access issues to their own country and that they wanted to be able to do something,” he said.
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Several states bordering Canada have abortion bans in place or will be imposed soon. In other border states, such as Michigan and Montana, the state of abortion rights is uncertain.
Even if access to Canada were improved, defense groups said, there are other barriers, including the need for a passport and the cost of the procedure, which could reach $ 600, which would likely deter North Americans. Americans to cross the border and get them there. more likely to travel to other U.S. states.
These costs “would put it out of the reach of many Americans,” said Joyce Arthur, executive director of the Coalition for Canada’s Abortion Rights. “It’s still the early days, and we don’t know how it’s going to be played.”
There were more than 74,000 abortions in Canada in 2020, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information. Most abortions in the country are performed during the first trimester of pregnancy.
Each province and territory has different gestational limits for medication and surgical abortions, and rules governing whether and when parental consent is needed.
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On Prince Edward Island, where government policy kept the island free of abortions for more than three decades until 2017, surgical abortions are not performed after about 12 weeks. The islanders are often referred to other Atlantic provinces, including the neighboring ones New Brunswick, where the procedure is only covered if it is performed in one of the three hospitals.
Abortion after 24 weeks is limited to Canada, sending a small number of people to the United States each year; cross-border travel defending concern could be jeopardized by the court decision.
Analysts and advocates are observing other possible cross-border repercussions, especially when some federal and state lawmakers indicate their intention to prevent women from having abortions in other states, to penalize out-of-state physicians, or to stop the flow of abortion pills by doing so. its sending by illegal mail.
What if these bans extend to other countries, or if people who are being persecuted for obtaining or having abortions in the United States seek refuge in Canada?
A key test under Canadian extradition law is “double criminality”: whether the conduct for which someone is wanted is also illegal in Canada. Since neither obtaining an abortion nor prescribing the abortion pill is illegal in Canada, these applications are unlikely to meet the test, said Robert Currie, a law professor at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia.
But in some cases, he said, the analysis of the double criminality could involve “transposing” the U.S. legal background.
In a case where prosecutors tried to extradite a Canadian who prescribed the abortion pill to an American, we can imagine the court saying that the “essence of the crime” was to sell prescription drugs in a market where it was illegal to sell them. “,” Currie said, “and the fact that it was a drug for abortion is just a ‘precedent.’
“This could be a major problem.”
The US decision on abortion provokes encouragement, horror abroad
The Supreme Court of Canada decriminalized abortion in the 1988 case R. v. Morning Tales.
“Forcing a woman, by threat of criminal sanction, to carry out a fetus unless she meets certain criteria unrelated to her own priorities and aspirations, is a profound interference with the woman’s body and therefore a violation. of the security of the person “. said the court in a 5-2 decision.
The ruling did not establish the right to abortion in Canada, and there is no federal law that enshrines it.
Prior to the decision, the abortion was limited to those who obtained the approval of a “therapeutic abortion committee” of physicians from an accredited hospital. Most of the panel had to agree that continuing a pregnancy “would put or could endanger [the woman’s] life or health ”.
Some hospitals did not have enough doctors for a committee. Others only saw patients living within a given geographic area or imposing fees on the procedure. All other abortion providers, or the women who had them, faced criminal sanctions.
A Canadian woman crossed the border to have an abortion. In 1984, more than 3,480 Canadian residents obtained legal abortions in the United States, according to a report by Statistics Canada at the time. Al judici a R. v. Morning Talesthe director of a women’s health center in Minnesota stated that many Canadian clients were facing delays at home.
Arthur, of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, pointed out this story.
“The clinics were very welcoming, and I know there has been an expression here that things are changing,” he said. “We want to help the Americans who come here. We want to reciprocate, but we also want to recognize that it will be a challenge for us and that we will not be able to help so many Americans at the end of the day.”