Dear Canada, Pierre Poilievre is Coming for Your Reproductive Rights

A letter to my fellow Canadians

Dr. Jen Gunter, The Vajenda
Apr 25, 2025

Dear Fellow Canadians,

On Monday, you will be heading to the ballot box (many of you have already voted, which is terrific). There are many issues at stake, but I want to talk about the one issue that rules them all: abortion.

Why does abortion rule them all? It is the canary in the coal mine. When a government thinks it can criminalize abortion, it’s a way to “other” half the population, and othering is an important part of fascism. Once one human right can be taken away, others quickly follow. Abortion is often the easiest entry point, because it comes with the misogynistic implication that women who want an abortion are lazy or thoughtless or “loose” or had “it” coming (“it’ can be so many awful things here; if you are a woman you know).

Continued: https://vajenda.substack.com/p/dear-canada-pierre-poilievre-is-coming

Canada – Exactly where do the Conservatives stand on abortion?

April 10, 2025
By Althia Raj, National Columnist

Half way through this federal election campaign and one word has yet to be uttered: abortion.

Maybe it’s because U.S. President Donald Trump continues to threaten our economy. Maybe it’s because Liberal Leader Mark Carney appears to be heading toward a win. Maybe it’s because Pierre Poilievre declared himself to be pro-choice. But so far the Conservative leader has escaped the pesky question his predecessors grappled with: how would he safeguard a women’s right to choose?

Continued: https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/exactly-where-do-the-conservatives-stand-on-abortion/article_be69d467-d037-4954-a9ac-69ea637da028.html

10.04.2025

Campaign Life Coalition

Canada – Abortion numbers in the NWT remain publicly undisclosed

Conservative candidate says she's pro-choice, but rights group has labelled party as anti-choice based on voting history

Devon Tredinnick
Dec 5, 2024

The NWT Health and Social Services Authority will not release a breakdown of data on abortions performed through the Northern Operations for Women (NOW) Program, citing privacy concerns.

However, Joyce Arthur, the executive director for the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, maintained that withholding such information adds to the stigma surrounding abortion. "There's no reason not to be upfront about it and transparent as with any other healthcare procedure," she said, noting there could also be some concern over outing people who provide abortions, though there's much less harassment towards them then there used to be in the 1990s.

Continued: https://www.nnsl.com/home/abortion-numbers-in-the-nwt-remain-publicly-undisclosed-7672039

05.12.2024

News

Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada

Cathay Wagantall

Joyce Arthur

Kimberly Fairman

Northern Operations for Women

NWT Health and Social Services Authority

Canada – NDP plan motion to push back against anti-abortion ‘creep’ from Conservatives

October 24, 2024

OTTAWA — The NDP is taking aim at the Conservatives on abortion by putting forward a motion to call out what it calls a “creep” of legislation, petitions and threats aimed at reducing access to abortion.

Leader Jagmeet Singh says his party will use its next opposition day to force the House of Commons to debate and vote on a motion calling for urgent action to improve abortion access.

Continued https://montreal.citynews.ca/2024/10/24/ndp-motion-anti-abortion-conservatives/

24.10.2024

News

Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada

‘We do it because it’s the right thing to do’

Abortion care remains difficult to access in Newfoundland and Labrador, but providers are coming up with creative solutions

BY RHEA ROLLMANN
JUNE 20, 2024

It was on a cold and blustery afternoon last month. About 60 reproductive justice activists gathered outside the Confederation Building in St. John’s to defend reproductive rights.

The May 17 event was organised as a counter-rally to the annual March For Life held by anti-choice activists. But the March for Life protestors didn’t show up this year.

Continued: https://theindependent.ca/news/we-do-it-because-its-the-right-thing-to-do/

Access to abortion is not just a matter of health, it is a matter of basic human rights

Jun 16, 2024
by Jessica Gosselin, Valerie Jeanneret, Meghan Pritchard

How is it that women in the United States, a society that styled itself as the defender of the “free world” more than 50 years ago, are still fighting for basic human rights in 2024?

In the landmark decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization on June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court abandoned its duty to protect fundamental rights by overturning Roe v. Wade, ruling that there is no federal, constitutional right to abortion. In the nearly two years since, 21 states have banned abortion or restricted the procedure to earlier in pregnancies than the standard that had been set by Roe v. Wade that allowed abortion until the fetus became viable, or 24-28 weeks post-conception.

Continued: https://healthydebate.ca/2024/06/topic/abortion-basic-human-rights/

16.06.2024

Opinion

Bill C-311

Cathay Wagantall

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

Canada has zero pro-choice Conservative MPs, watchdog says

Abortion rights group places remaining 15 Conservatives on list of anti-choice MPs after vote on ‘fetal rights’ bill

Tracey Lindeman in Ottawa
Thu 3 Aug 2023

A vote on a controversial bill meant to expand “fetal rights” in Canada has left the country without a single pro-choice Conservative MP, according to an abortion watchdog organization.

This week, the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada (ARCC) placed the last remaining 15 Conservatives on its list of anti-choice MPs after they voted in support of Bill C-311, dubbed the Violence Against Pregnant Women Act.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/03/canada-abortion-rights-pregnancy

The state of reproductive rights in Canada

It’s been one year since Roe v. Wade was overturned in the United States. In this piece, we look at abortion rights in Canada, accessibility issues and the future of abortion protection across the country.

by Stephen Wentzell
June 22, 2023

On June 24, 2022, the world watched in horror as the clock turned back decades in the U.S. in real-time as the Supreme Court overturned the Constitutional right to abortion access.

The move returned the right to abortion to the state level, overruling two landmark cases — Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992).

While the criminalization of reproductive rights in the U.S. has been a cause for concern north of the border, experts like Martha Paynter, author of Abortion to Abolition: Reproductive Health and Justice in Canada, have sought to dispel misconceptions about abortion access in our country.

Continued: https://rabble.ca/health/the-state-of-reproductive-rights-in-canada/

Canada – Conservative bill defeated amid concerns it would promote fetal rights

By Staff The Canadian Press
Posted June 14, 2023

A controversial Conservative private member’s bill intended to make violence against pregnant women an aggravating factor during court sentencing was roundly defeated in the House of Commons, as other parties said they feared it would reopen the debate on abortion.

The bill was supported by nearly all members of the Conservative party, including Leader Pierre Poilievre who declared himself to be “pro-choice” during his leadership campaign.

The Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada had urged MPs to vote against the bill on the grounds that it promotes fetal rights, even though there is no mention of fetal rights in the text of the bill itself.

Continued: https://globalnews.ca/news/9769739/conservatives-violence-against-pregnant-women-fetal-rights/

14.06.2023

Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada

Campaign Life Coalition

Cathay Wagantall

Pierre Poilievre

violence against women

Canada – Conservative MP’s bill on violence against pregnant women revives abortion debate

Activist groups believe bill could lend itself to a legal argument for fetal rights

Laura Osman · The Canadian Press
Posted: May 09, 2023

A private member's bill from a Conservative backbench MP is stirring up debate over abortion in Canada, even though the proposed legislation does not mention it once.

Conservative MP Cathay Wagantall's bill would encourage judges to consider physical or emotional harm to a pregnant victim as an aggravating factor during sentencing.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/private-members-bill-violence-against-women-abortion-rights-1.6837875

09.05.2023