Vicky Mochama is a contributing columnist for The Globe and Mail.
Like a sinister crawling mist in a horror film, the rollback of abortion rights in the United States has been chilling. This week, for example, Florida introduced bills to ban abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. In Utah, the Governor is set to sign a measure banning abortion clinics, though abortion itself remains legal in the state. Meanwhile, retailer Walgreens has said it would not sell the abortion pill in 21 states. That’s just this week.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right of Americans to have an abortion, a number of lawyers, men and men who are lawyers have explained that I am not to worry: Canada is a different country with different laws, sweetie. True, the Morgentaler decision has all but assured that abortion is a legal right in Canada. And yet. My concerns about abortion have an oddly familiar feeling, like when you’re running the checkout gamut at one of those stores that forces you through a maze of your own impulses and consumer anxieties, and suddenly you’re in front of a cashier thinking, “I am a LOSER for not getting that furry unicorn-themed notebook. That was the last one!” I can’t help feeling, when it comes to abortion: Oh God, maybe it’s too late and that was the last one!
It’s not a feeling that is going away. For the past few weeks, there has been a shortage of the abortion pill Mifegymiso – the second such shortage in three months. The CBC reports that doctors have had to offer women surgical options instead. A network of volunteers in Regina delivered the pill to rural and remote areas of Saskatchewan “after pharmacies in smaller communities ran out.”
The manufacturer blames the ever-present supply chain issues. But were there to be a shortage in erectile-dysfunction medications, the country would surely have entered another lockdown until supplies could be commandeered and airdropped to the nation’s desperate and horny men.
The chilly fog creeps northward.
While it is not illegal to get an abortion in Canada, accessing one should be part of a greater and more robust package of reproductive justice available to all Canadians.
Panicked as I am about the spread of misogynist and anti-abortion politics elsewhere, there is actually some good news. I know, shocking.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino announced that expungements would be made available for those convicted of abortion-related crimes in the past. (The changes also include expungements for “bawdy house and indecency-based offences.”) This week, British Columbia became the first province in Canada to offer free universal contraception, including the emergency contraception medication Plan B.
My least favourite experience of buying Plan B was at a pharmacy in Montreal where you’re also required to fill out a survey asking if you’ve had sex (which: duh) – and I’m sure if there was room on the form, they would want to know whom you had it with (a fine, upstanding man called Nunya Business) and why you dared to have sex, you terrible whore. I paid for this “consultation” as well as the meds, as I was then visiting from out-of-province; the prescription is covered for Quebeckers.
Until the Morgentaler decision, women who received abortions without permission from a special committee were considered criminals, errant – as were those who provided the abortions. That streak of misogynist judgment is still with us, particularly when it comes to emergency contraceptives.
British Columbia’s plan comes into effect on April 1, inspiring me to look for a pied-à-terre to rent on Vancouver Island.
I’m lucky to be in a province that covers the cost of the abortion pill but free access to abortion care is not a reality for many Canadian women. That it is not a crime to get an abortion is a fairly useless right if the nearest clinic closes down – a distinct possibility for Clinic 554 in Fredericton. Provincial law bars the health care system from paying for abortions outside of a hospital setting, so Clinic 554 patients need to pay $700 to $850 or ask for a subsidy. In this case, the potential closing of the clinic means there may be reduced access to abortion and the elimination of other reproductive health services, such as gender-affirming care for transgender people.
Moves to expunge criminal convictions and to provide free universal contraception stand in contrast to the fog of fear that now surrounds abortion, especially in the U.S. It isn’t just a present danger; it is also a return to a past that long denied women’s bodily autonomy.
When it comes to reproductive justice, the monsters in the mist – regulatory, financial and legal restrictions on abortion, to name a few – are always looming.
I hope it’s not too late.