SocialistAction 1983–88

The paper of the Socialist League, formerly the International Marxist Group, 1983–88

Abortion rights victory for Canadian women

· Socialist Action No. 179, April 1988 · pp. 10-11 of the scan · 460 words

The scan: 179-April-1988-SA-UK.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive, opens at this page)

Uncorrected machine reading. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from a scan of a newspaper page, and the page was cut into articles by machine, at the headlines found by their type size. Nothing has been corrected: expect misread words, text from a neighbouring article, and titles that are the machine reading of the headline, some of them only fragments. Quote from the scan, not from this page.
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page 10 of the scan

fateful questions, until we have - Nazism. Perhaps the secret deal between Rudoloph committee 600 prominent massacre of 800,000 A Nazi negotiator of this, SS It deserves the of The Other Bookshop, Freedoms.

The ruling stated that: 'Forcing woman, tion, to carry a foetus to term unless she meets certain criteria unrelated her own priorities aspirations, is a profound interference with woman's body and thus an infringement of security of the person.

Justice Bertha Wilson put _the case even strongly in her contribu• ton to COUrI She the Charter 'guarantees individual a degree of per. sonal autonomy over imaffecting private life. Liberty in a free and democratic sociedoes not require. the state to approve such decisions, but it does require the state to respect them.

This ruling also brought to an end the 20 year long campaign by one doctor, Dr Henry Morgentaler, to win the right to perform abortions women Canada. Dr Morgentaler began his campaign 1968 when he performec his first illegal abortion in his Montreal clinic.

In 1984 the Ontario Supreme Court rejected Morgentaler's ComteRLOl that Canada's abortion law violates the country Charter of Rights Freedoms, yet the Supreme Court jury acquitted him of breaking the abortion aw, despite his open anc stated defiance of it verdict was appealed by the Crown that is the British Crown!

- and it is judgement on inal appeal willell was all nounced on 28 January.

Prior to this decision abortion in Canada could only be carried out subject to a series of punitive conditions with the decision being naur ov abortion committees which excluded any doctor who actually performed abortion, with the opera. formed i specially ar formed specially credited' hospitals This system meant that access legal abortion was denied to thousand of Canadian women, an predictably provisior varied enormously one state or one area to another.

response to the court decision was one of tremendous celebration DI Canadian women and procampaigners. Predictably the response of the Liberal government was one of consternation. with Barbara McDougall, Minister Responsible for the Status of Women arguing that There's not a consensus among women the role of the state on this issue, so she would be consulling with ner colleagues in the government.

The governing Liberal upheld January law, the Conservative Party. Only the New Democratic Party met the ruling with unequivocal approval, calling on establish non-profit makclinics in every state, so that 'people have access so they can ex ercise that freedom' decided by the court.

page 11 of the scan

Socialist Actior.-

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ON 28 January this year the women of Canada won a long awaited and decisive victory when the Canadian supreme court ruled that the existing abortion law was in breach of the Canadian Charter of Rights and

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