Few Canadians Know Rules on Abortion Poll Finds

[Karen]

Katherine Laidlaw, National Post · Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010

Two-thirds of Canadians do not know that Canada has no abortion law,
according to a new poll that indicates Canadians are woefully
misinformed about a landmark ruling in the country’s history.

The poll, which asked 1,022 Canadian adults about their understanding
of the country’s abortion regulations, found that just 22% of
Canadians correctly identified a woman’s right to an abortion with no
governmental restrictions. Canada has not had legislated abortion
rules since 1988, making the country an “absolute outlier” on the
issue, according to a medical ethicist.

“There’s really only a very small number of Canadians that correctly
identify the current situation in Canada,” says pollster Jaideep
Mukerji, who worked on the Angus-Reid poll, which was released on
Tuesday. “That could be problematic.”

“Once you explain to them what the actual law is, there’s only 27% of
Canadians that say that the status quo [of no law] should be
maintained. There’s a majority of Canadians that would like to make
some change to that status quo,” Mr. Mukerji said.

Forty-one per cent of those surveyed believe the government regulates
the roughly 90,000 abortions that occur each year, only allowing women
to have them up until the third month of pregnancy. Fifteen per cent
said women could have abortions only within the first three months of
pregnancy or if the woman’s life is in danger, she was raped, or the
fetus has serious defects. Another 10% said they believe a woman can
only have an abortion in Canada if her life is in danger, she was
raped or her fetus has serious defects and 13% of respondents weren’t
sure about the country’s legal stance.

“We obviously need to have more education and more dialogue around
pregnancies, and what the possible outcomes can be,” said Jill
Doctoroff, director of Vancouver’s Elizabeth Bagshaw Women’s Clinic,
adding that such widespread misinformation can limit women’s options.
“It shows the medical community and sexual health workers still have a
lot of work to do.”

More than 50% of people surveyed said they would like to see some
legal regulations implemented, with the largest percentage (22%)
preferring unrestricted abortions during the first three months and
abortions during the last six months only if the woman’s life is in
danger, if she was raped or if the fetus has serious defects.

The poll, conducted online on July 7 and 8, has a margin of error of
plus or minus 3.1%, 19 times out of 20.

The last slate of regulations in place in Canada, implemented by the
Trudeau government, restricted abortions to being performed in
hospitals and only if approved by a hospital committee.

The Supreme Court struck down the law in 1988, on a challenge from Dr.
Henry Morgentaler. The court ruled it to be contrary to the Charter
and too intrusive. Since then there has been virtually no meaningful
debate over abortion law in Canada.

Margaret Somerville, founding director of the McGill University Centre
for Medicine, Ethics and Law, says the lack of such a law is not
reflective of the country’s national attitude toward abortion.

“The vast majority of Canadians cannot believe that you could have an
abortion when you’re eight-and-a-half months pregnant. I don’t think a
doctor would do it. But that’s not the point. Legally, that’s allowed,
and what we allow legally has a big impact on what our shared societal
values are,” she said. “If you don’t understand the facts, you’re in
trouble working out what the ethics are.”

She points out that other countries have imposed limits on abortion
procedures; Germany and the United States require counselling before
an abortion and parental involvement for minors. Thirty-eight U.S.
states and nearly every Western European country have put restrictions
on late-term abortions, except in special cases.

According to Mr. Mukerji, Canadians’ views on abortion regulation have
stayed constant over the past few years.

“We’ve run similar questions in the U.S. and U.K., however, and
Canadians are significantly more likely to support allowing abortion
in all cases and are also more reluctant to reopen the debate than
Americans and Brits,” he said.

The survey indicated that although a majority would like to see
regulations implemented, that majority is a fractured one and 55% of
Canadians see no point in revisiting the abortion debate. “At some
level, Canadians realize the issue is a divisive one,” Mr. Mukerji
said.

Published in The Financial Post by Katherine Laidlaw of the National
Post
Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010
http://www.financialpost.com/news/Canadians+know+rules+abortion+poll+finds/3356045/story.html

Although not set out in law, abortions are regulated by medical
governing bodies across Canada, including by hospitals and provincial
Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons. But that raises concerns about
private bodies governing what some believe should be overseen by the
government. The Elizabeth Bagshaw Women’s Clinic in Vancouver is
accredited to perform abortions up to 16 weeks, or into the second
trimester of pregnancy. For later pregnancies, women would have to go
to hospitals, Ms. Doctoroff said, adding that clinics across Canada
have different time caps but most fall in either the first or second
trimester. Dr. Somerville points out that those regulations aren’t
prohibitory. “It’s just sort of custom or practice,” she said, adding
that she has been consulted on an abortion 34 weeks into a pregnancy.

Ms. Doctoroff said she thinks some of the misinformation could have
arisen from discussion surrounding the G8, when Prime Minister Stephen
Harper refused to include abortion in Canada’s maternal-health plan,
putting it at odds with American and British policies.

Regardless of the source of the misunderstanding, however, she says
she believes abortion is regulated by the appropriate medical bodies
in Canada and the issue is more of an educational one. “It can be so
timely, getting the information at the right time,” she said.
“Obviously there’s a huge percentage of the survey who don’t have
it.”

National Post