Quote:
Originally Posted by America first  And how would you know that for sure, don't canada have coat hangers too.... sex,, don't knock it until you try it. |
Found this interesting information in Widpekia about Canada's policies on abortion:
Abortion in Canada - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Abortion in Canada is not limited by law. While some non-legal obstacles exist,
Canada is one of only a few nations with no
legal restrictions on
abortion, and access there is still among the most liberal in the world.
Polls continue to show that a majority of Canadians believe abortion should remain legal in some circumstances (
see Opinion polls, below). Over 110,000 abortions are performed in Canada every year. 90% of abortions are performed in the first
trimester, with just 2 to 3% performed after 16 weeks.
Legality
The
Supreme Court of Canada has deemed abortion a
Criminal Law matter that is within Federal jurisdiction. Consequently, Provincial Legislatures have very little power to regulate abortion, even if done indirectly. Thus, the discussion on the law on abortion in Canada turns almost entirely around the state of the Criminal Law.
Section 287 of the Criminal Code is the abortion provision drafted by
Trudeau and passed in 1969. Prior to 1969, taking steps to cause an abortion was an offence liable to life imprisonment. However, the Trudeau scheme made an exception for abortions performed in a hospital with the approval of that hospital’s three-doctor therapeutic abortion committee. The committee would have to certify that the pregnancy would be likely to endanger the life or health of the mother. The term health was not defined, and therapeutic abortion committees were free to develop their own theories as to when a likely danger to “health” (which might include psychological health) would justify a therapeutic abortion.
In 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada in the
Morgentaler decision declared this entire section to be of no force or effect because it was held to violate section 7 of the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Section 7 states that: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and the security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.”
The majority of the Court held that “the structure of the system regulating access to therapeutic abortions is manifestly unfair. It contains so many potential barriers to its own operation that the [exception] it creates will in many circumstances be practically unavailable to women who would prima facie qualify”. As such, the provision was held to violate the principles of fundamental justice and was struck down, leaving Canada with a legislative vacuum to this day.
Access throughout Canada
Abortions in Canada are provided on request and funded by
Medicare, to Canadian citizens and permanent residents (as with most medical procedures) in
hospitals across the country. Abortion funding for hospitals comes from the various provincial governments (their overall health expenses are however paid for in part by the federal government). One-third of hospitals perform abortions, and these perform two-thirds of abortions in the country. The remaining abortions are performed by public and private-for-profit clinics.
Medical abortion is available in Canada on a limited basis using
methotrexate and
misoprostol;
mifepristone (more widely known as
RU-486) is not legally approved, and importation of that drug in Canada is currently illegal. Clinical trials were done in 2000 in various Canadian cities comparing methotrexate to mifepristone, after approbation by the federal government. While both drugs had overall similar results, mifepristone was found to act faster.
[1] As of May 2005, it is unclear whether or when RU-486 will be approved for use in Canada.
Access by province
While the
provinces are required by the federal government to fund abortion clinics fully, Quebec and
Nova Scotia provide only limited funding, and
New Brunswick provides no funding for clinics.
Until 2004,
Manitoba did not fund private abortion clinics. However, in July of 2004 the province's only private abortion clinic was purchased by a non-profit organization, which then successfully sued the provincial government to pay for abortion procedures there. In December of 2004, a Manitoba judge ruled that the province must pay for all therapuetic abortions.
In 2004, Dr.
Henry Morgentaler launched a judicial battle against the New Brunswick government, seeking to have abortion recognized as a constitutional right under the
Canadian Charter.
Access in rural and northern areas, and especially in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and
Prince Edward Island (PEI), is often restricted by the lack of nearby facilities, requiring women to travel long distances (often at their own expense) to obtain an abortion. Some hospitals refuse to perform abortions on out-of-province patients, in contravention of the
portability requirement of the
Canada Health Act. This can be especially troublesome for women in PEI, where no facilities currently perform abortions.
A doctor's referral is not necessary, although an independent
ultrasound usually needs to be done. The number of Canadian medical schools that give instruction in abortion procedures is decreasing, which could potentially create a shortfall in medical personnel skilled in this area.
02-23-2007, 08:43 AM
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