The impact of anti-abortion laws on women in North America - Essay Example

of the of the Concerned April What is the Impact of Anti-abortion Laws on the Women in North America? Introduction In a realistic and just perspective, without resorting to any direct allusions to the hardcore feminist ideology, the right to have an abortion is and should be an integral aspect of any women’s right to sovereignty over one’s body and life (Trib 14). No society, religion, government or group has the right to push any woman into motherhood, unless one voluntarily and willingly intends to do so (Trib 14). Denying a woman the right to have an abortion is akin to pressurizing a woman into accepting a submissive and subservient role in the society. In such a scenario, the dominant ideologies and influences resort to exploiting pregnancy and motherhood as a tool to accord women a second class status (Trib 16). In case of the women, access to legal and safe abortion facilities is recognition of one’s fundamental right to have a control over one’s body. No individual or society has the right to control what happens to the body of an individual or what an individual chooses to do to one’s body to assure personal well being (Trib 17). In North American and especially in Canada and the US, the struggle against anti-abortion laws has been long and unrelenting, accompanied by both favorable and adverse impacts on the women in North America. Canada- Abortion Laws In the year 1869, the Canadian legislature passed strict anti-abortion laws (Tatalovich 23). These laws strictly prohibited abortion, unless an abortion was required to save a women’s life, as a response to a medical emergency. A hundred years later, the then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau somewhat loosened the anti-abortion laws by allowing for an abortion, provided it was supported and recommended by a committee of doctors (Tatalovich 26). However, women in Canada still had no right to make a decision in a personal capacity, as to have an abortion. Practically speaking, most of the Hospitals in Canada refused to constitute such committees (Tatalovich 27). And even if such committees existed in some hospitals, they mostly refused to grant permission for an abortion at one pretext or other (Tatalovich 27). The abortion clinics were considered illegal and subject to severe penalties (Tatalovich 27). The women who most suffered were the ones from small towns or rural areas (Tatalovich 29). In the year 1988, in a ruling famously known as the “Morgentaler decision”, the Supreme Court of Canada, repealed the harsh and draconian anti-abortion laws and declared them to be null and void (Tatalovich 53). The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that such anti-abortion laws amounted to an inequitable treatment towards women and interfered with the rights extended to them under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Tatalovich 56). The Court observed that abortion constituted a Charter right of women, guaranteed under the right to life, right to liberty and the right to freedom of conscience (Tatalovich 56). The Canadian government tried to pass strict anti- abortion laws in 1990, but was forestalled by massive public protests and media outrage (Tatalovich 58). So, today Canada is the only country with no anti-abortion laws. The Canadian Experience In a post 1869 scenario, the strict Canadian anti-abortion laws directly translated into untold and multifarious emotional and medical turmoil for women. Women having no access to safe and legal abortion resorted to unsafe and bothersome options. Not to say, a great proportion of the women having no option of a safe and legal abortion, willy-nilly reconciled with a forced and undesired motherhood (Faur 312). Things stood to be worse for those who owing to a lack of legal and safe abortion facilities, resorted to risky and unsafe abortion procedures, resulting in sever medical complications and many a times in death (Faur 314). Unsafe and botched abortions performed by quacks were the only option left to many, and this option was mostly loaded with severe and dire possibilities and consequences (Faur 314). It makes a lot of common sense to conclude that restrictive laws though did not prevent abortions from taking place; they certainly made them more dangerous and risky, resulting in unwanted and preventable injuries and deaths. This is amply corroborated by the results and statistics accrued after 1988, when the abortions in Canada became legal and readily available at most of the medical facilities. The abortion rate in Canada in the year 2005 stood at 14.1 abortions per thousand women, much lower than the global average of 29 per thousand women (Faur 317). With better access to safe and legal abortions and a dilution of the stigma associated with abortion, Canada today has one of the world’s lowest maternal mortality rates for abortion. USA-Abortion Laws At the time of Independence, US had no specific laws pertaining to abortion, except the one’s it inherited from the English Common Law, which allowed for abortion in a very unclear and ambiguous context. It was sometime around 1820 that varied anti-abortion statues started to appear in the United States (Cott 239). Some states like Connecticut and New York passed strict laws threatening the apothecaries who sold to women the abortion potions and the women who hired their services with severe legal consequences (Cott 239). Criminalization of abortion gained momentum over the following years and by the end of the 19th century, abortion was declared illegal by most of the states. It was the verdict given by the US Supreme Court in the famous Roe v. Wade case in 1973, which came against the exceptions to abortion existing in the ten US state (Cott 244). The Supreme Court declared that the women had the right to privacy, which needs to be balanced with the state’s right to protect the life of a fetus. Yet, the verdict of the Court in Roe v. Wade allowed for abortion during a minimal period only, and abortion still remains one of the most controversial issues in the US politico-legal setup. Hence, the women in the US have to face many unwarranted consequences owing to the anti-abortion laws. The women in the US requiring an abortion are required to contend with a range of legal and statutory hassles. Impact on Women In a realistic context, irrespective of the harsh anti-abortion laws in the US, these obsolete statutory measures have utterly failed to drop the abortion rates. The abortion rate in the US is 20 abortions per 1000 women, one of the highest in the world (Risen & Thomas 24). To put it simply, restrictive abortion laws are not a safeguard against a high abortion rate. The irony of the matter is that anti-abortion laws enhance the stigma associated with abortion and consequently women in such countries have to resort to surreptitious, unsafe and risky methods to get an abortion (Risen & Thomas 23). Anti-abortion laws in the US are also a great obstruction before the doctors and health personnel and push the abortion procedures outside the ambit of health services (Risen & Thomas 25). The anti-abortion laws in America are not only prejudicial towards women, but even hurt the self esteem of women by not allowing them to take decisions regarding their own health (Risen & Thomas 24). These laws also tend to preserve and retain biases against women by adhering to off dated patriarchal norms that consider motherhood to be the most important if not the sole purpose of a woman’s existence. Conclusion The fight against anti-abortion laws has still a long way to go in North America. Canada to a great extent has fared well in this context. However, in the US it is the politicians and not the women and doctors who have a final say in the matter of abortion. Works Cited Cott, Nancy F. No Small Courage: A History of Women in the United States. Oxford University Press: New York, 2000. Faur, Christine. Political and Historical Encyclopedia of Women. Routledge: New York, 2007. Risen, James & Thomas, Judy L. Wrath of Angels: The American Abortion War. Basic Books: New York, 1998. Tatalovich, Raymond. The Politics of Abortion in United States and Canada. ME Sharpe: Armonk, NY, 1997. Trib, Laurence H. The Clash of Absolutes. WW Norton: New York, 1992. Read More