Canada – She Wanted to End Her Pregnancy. Her Abusive Partner Took Her to Court

The legal case that won Canadian women the right to abortion

by Karin Wells
Jun. 4, 2025

They met at a RadioShack in Montreal in November 1988. She was barely twenty, a waitress new to the city. He was five years older, a big man, six foot three, with a moustache. He seemed nice enough.

Chantale Daigle might have been a young, small-town girl—she was from Chibougamau, eight hours north of Montreal—but she knew her own mind. She lived with Jean-Guy Tremblay for five months, and it turned out he was not so nice. She got pregnant. One night, he knocked her to the ground and said that he would “bring her into line once and for all.”

Continued: https://thewalrus.ca/she-wanted-to-end-her-pregnancy-her-abusive-partner-took-her-to-court/

Dr. Nikki Colodny’s journey from psychotherapy to civil disobedience

Dr. Nikki Colodny took part in the fight to ensure access to safe abortions in Canada in the 1980s. This is the story of how she became involved with the movement and eventually decided to violate Canada’s abortion law.

by Meghan Tibbits-Lamirande
May 7, 2024

At 8:45 a.m. on September 24, 1986, Toronto police knocked on the window of Dr. Nikki Colodny’s vehicle and placed her under arrest. Taking just a moment to pack her knitting and her Holly Near cassette tape, Dr. Colodny went quietly to the courthouse where she was charged, alongside her colleagues Dr. Henry Morgentaler and Dr. Robert Scott, for conspiracy to commit a miscarriage.

Originally trained as a psychotherapist and family physician, Colodny joined the Ontario Coalition for Abortion Clinics (OCAC) as an “envelope licker” in the early 1980s, and eventually trained as an abortion provider at Henry Morgentaler’s clinic in Montreal. From 1986 until the landmark Supreme Court decision R v Morgentaler in January 1988, Colodny provided abortions in contravention of Canadian law.

Continued: https://rabble.ca/feminism/dr-nikki-colodnys-journey-from-psychotherapy-to-civil-disobedience/

35 years after Morgentaler, abortion still not available for all in Canada

Thirty five years after the landmark Morgentaler decision the fight continues to ensure that the right to abortion is accessible to all.

by Frederique Chabot and Jill Doctoroff
January 27, 2023

Abortion was decriminalized in Canada 35 years ago this Saturday, January 28. 36 years ago, if you wanted an abortion, it meant sitting in front of a panel of doctors, usually men, who would decide if your abortion was “necessary.” That is, if you could access such a hospital. Not all hospitals created those committees, effectively refusing to provide abortion care at all. If such a committee did deem your story good enough to warrant an abortion—many did not—delays could span weeks.

Today, the legal hurdles are gone, but access is still a privilege not everyone in Canada has, and another question looms: Could what happened in the U.S. happen here too?

Continued: https://rabble.ca/health/35-years-after-morgentaler-abortion-still-not-available-for-all-in-canada/

On the brink: Why abortion access in Ontario is under threat

By Jasmine Pazzano, Global News
December 6, 2022

When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade abortion rights earlier this year, Canadians speculated that this country would become a destination, if not a safe haven, for Americans who could no longer get care in their home states.

As it stands, though, the system in Canada is struggling to provide for its own patients.

Continued: https://globalnews.ca/news/9280268/abortion-access-ontario-under-threat/

USA – Doctors who would like to defy abortion laws say it’s too risky

November 22, 2022
Selena Simmons-Duffin

Doctors in states with abortion bans can face prison time and lose their licenses if they violate the laws. Some are calling on doctors to openly defy the bans.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: It's been five months since Roe v. Wade was overturned, and now 13 states have laws banning abortion with limited exceptions for medical emergencies. Doctors who violate these laws could face felony charges, prison time and the loss of their medical license. Surveys, news reports and court affidavits show the fear of these laws has caused some doctors to delay or deny abortions, including in emergencies. Some doctors are asking themselves a tough question - when they are forced to choose between their ethical obligations to patients and the law, should they defy the law? NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin reports.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2022/11/22/1138558392/doctors-who-would-like-to-defy-abortion-laws-say-its-too-risky

Canada – “We can’t get complacent”: ‘Looking For Jane’ is a page-turner with an agenda

JEN MCNEELY
MARCH 1, 2022

Heather Marshall’s spectacular debut novel Looking For Jane hooks from the very first line.

Set in Toronto over several decades (1960-2017), Looking For Jane is about motherhood and women’s choices. The gripping historical fiction, based on real-life events, will shock you.

Continued: https://www.shedoesthecity.com/we-cant-get-complacent-looking-for-jane-is-a-page-turner-with-an-agenda/

01.03.2022

Featured

Film, Art, Books

books on abortion

Dr. Henry Morgentaler

Canada – With her debut novel, Aimee Wall moves from translator to author

In We, Jane, Wall tackles rural abortion access in Newfoundland and Labrador

Elizabeth Whitten · CBC News
Posted: Feb 01, 2022

Aimee Wall's debut novel, We, Jane, starts off in Montreal with expat Marthe being lured back to her home province of Newfoundland and Labrador by an enigmatic fellow Newfoundlander named Jane, who is on a mission to increase abortion access in rural communities.

The name "Jane" is important, said Wall, who was inspired by a Chicago-based group with that name that performed abortions in the 1960s, when they were still illegal.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/nl-reads-aimee-wall-1.6278095

01.02.2022

Featured

Film, Art, Books

Aimee Wall

Dr. Henry Morgentaler

Inside the Battle for Better Abortion Access In New Brunswick

Sarah Ratchford, Reader's Digest Canada
Nov 10, 2021

Angie Deveau had planned to spend Boxing Day of 2013 lounging in front of the Christmas tree with her family. Instead, she had morning sickness and found herself rushing back and forth to the bathroom. That evening, after she read her three-year-old son his favourite bedtime story, cuddled him, and kissed his forehead goodnight, Deveau took a pregnancy test. She’d already guessed what it would say: positive.

At the time she was 34 and lived in a house in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Though she shared custody with her son’s father, she was the boy’s primary caregiver and had only her part-time income as a researcher to sustain them both. She made $25 per hour, working 15 hours per week, and had all the bills that everyone does: housing, groceries, clothing, utilities, and on it went.

Continued; https://www.msn.com/en-ca/health/wellness/inside-the-battle-for-better-abortion-access-in-new-brunswick/ar-AAQyxex

Canada -Judge gives civil liberties group green light to sue N.B. over abortion access

Justice Tracey DeWare says province was 'unreasonable' in blocking public-interest standing application

Hadeel Ibrahim · CBC News
Posted: Jun 01, 2021

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association has been given the go-ahead to sue New Brunswick over abortion access.

Chief Justice Tracey DeWare of the Court of Queen's Bench decided Tuesday that the association has public-interest standing and is qualified to sue the province.

She also admonished the province for opposing the association's application to have standing.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/ccla-abortion-access-new-brunswick-1.6048563

01.06.2021

Featured

News

Canada Health Act

Canadian Civil Liberties Association

Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Clinic 554

Dr. Henry Morgentaler

public interest standing

Finally, New Brunswick is being sued for unlawful restrictions on abortion access

by Martha Paynter
Jan 18, 2021

On January 7, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association filed a lawsuit against the Higgs government in New Brunswick, challenging the constitutionality of the province’s restrictions to publicly-insured abortion services. Section 2.a.1 of Regulation 84-20 of the N.B. Medical Services Payment Act, enacted in 1984, states that abortion is “deemed not to be entitled services” for provincial payment unless it is provided in an approved hospital facility. Other services similarly banned from public payment include cosmetic surgery and breast augmentation. The regulation effectively excludes abortion care provided by Clinic 554, the former Morgentaler Clinic in Fredericton, from public coverage. The federal government has reprimanded New Brunswick for being the only province in the country that refuses to fund clinic-based abortion, a move that violates the Canada Health Act.

As a registered nurse working in abortion care and research, I recognize there are many potential advantages to going to a clinic for abortion care, such as a welcoming environment; more specialized staff; and reduced travel time, since many clinics also provide related services like ultrasounds and bloodwork collection. But in New Brunswick there are two additional, critical benefits.

Continued: https://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/finally-new-brunswick-is-being-sued-for-unlawful-restrictions-on-abortion-access