Sunday, January 22, 2012 marks the 39th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that decriminalized abortion throughout the United States. As a result, generations of women have had the right to safe and legal reproductive choices. Anti-choice forces and politicians never quite working to overturn this decision and to pass laws and regulations that make abortion more difficult to obtain.
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In Canada the Roe Vs. Wade decision inspired Dr. Henry Morgentaler to openly challenge the Canadian abortion law by publicly announcing in 1973 that he had performed more than 5000 abortions at his Montreal clinic. This caused Morgentaler to be subjected to a long judicial process that finally ended when the Supreme Court of Canada declared the abortion law invalid in 1988.
In 2012 abortion access is relatively good across Canada, but some provincial governments have tried unsuccessfully to obstruct efforts to establish abortion clinics.
The court decisions in the US and Canada have optimized maternal health, protected women’s health, eliminated the dangers of illegal abortion, and increased the well-being of children. For every woman who cares about these issues, it’s vital to speak out and support these gains to ensure they are not lost.
For every important cause, voices must be heard!
If you support Pro-Choice, make your voice heard. Women deserve the right to choose. Mutual respect between Pro-Life and Pro-Choice supporters is the answer. It’s personal.
Thanks for posting this, Patricia. It’s good for us to be reminded that the conflict is not over, and may never be. I am definitely pro-choice. Without it many babies would have been born seriously ill or to parents who didn’t really want them. Both could result in government medical services to care for them. However, I do believe in better education and more of it, to show young women how to avoid unwanted pregnancies. I would also like to see more American couples adopting American children rather than going to foreign countries first.
Controversial topic, for sure, but important to keep in the minds of all of us.
Your comments are so valid, Marcia. Better education and decisions on the part of young women (and men) is something that requires ongoing attention.
I couldn’t agree with Marcia more. I am definitely pro-choice but believe more education is needed to prevent unwanted pregnancies from happening in the first place.
But a woman’s right to choose is paramount to our society and our country. I fear what will happen once Dr. Morgentaler dies. His clinics are some of the only ones in some Canadian cities across the country.
Once gone, if no one takes his place, the one and only abortion clinic in my city would close and women would have to start traveling to try and find clinics. The only other way to get an abortion is to get two doctors to sign-off on your need so you can get one done at the hospital. I hope Dr. Morgentaler lives a long time but the man is getting up there.
I would hate to see women’s right to choose impaired by access.
I just discovered that only NB and PEI provide no funding for abortion clinics!
I’m shocked that Canada isn’t more pro-choice. I guess I shouldn’t be since the US is still fighting this as well.
I saw a great bumper sticker the other day, it read:
If the fetus you save is gay, will you still fight for its rights?
It made me stop in my tracks and really think about what it was saying. Then I nearly dropped my grocery bags from laughing so hard!
Too many people are fighting for the rights of something that is nobody’s business. Whether a woman keeps a child or not is her (and hopefully the father’s) decision. Not mine, not the governments, not a religious group.
Just the fact that we’re still fighting for women’s rights appalls me. And it scares the crap out of me that we could backslide way too easily.
Oh no Tameri, Canada is really Pro-Choice I’m happy to say. It’s not a major issue here like it is in the States. We do have some provinces that make it an insurance issue but there isn’t the kind of opposition we see in U.S. politics.
That bumper sticker is brilliant!
Education is really the key to helping people make good decisions and speaking out about these important issues will hopefully help.
Aaaah, a subject close to my heart. I watched and later read The Cider House Rules by John Irving and I became pro-choice then and there. It worries me too greatly the extent a woman could go to should she not have a safe place to seek counsel and medical care.
If you’ve never seen it, you must watch the film The Defenders, a documentary to women’s reproductive rights. I remember one woman stating clearly “The definition of opression is not having choice.” Here, here! My body, my choice! No one elses.
Thanks Patricia!
Ah yes, The Cider House Rules was a good movie for the cause. I’ll check out The Defenders. Thanks!
This subject is so important to me.
America has by far the highest teen pregnancy rate in the Western world, at over 44 per 1000 teen girls. Last time I checked, the next country on the list was Britain. Were they in the 30s or 40s per 1000? No. 11.
All of Europe has comprehensive sex education that introduces children and adolescents to their bodies in a straightforward and honest way. And they have the numbers to show it works — both in their drastically low (to us) teen pregnancy rate and their minuscule abortion rates.
The states in the US where teen pregnancy is the highest are states with abstinence-only sex ed laws (Louisiana and Texas were both over 60 — Texas at 66 — last time I checked) — I grew up in Montana, and their idea of sex ed was to show us a bunch of horrible photos of progressed STIs and tell us not to have sex or we’d get pregnant and die.
I agree with all the commenters that sex-ed is paramount to making abortion safe, legal, and rare. I believe that no woman should ever be forced to bear an unwanted child, and that she should always have the option to make the choices about her own body.
I still get a chill when I remember hearing one of the Republican candidates in 2007-2008 say that the two most vital issues in that election were stopping gay marriage and overturning Roe v. Wade — in the midst of two wars and a massive recession, he chose to focus on taking/keeping rights from minorities.
Thanks so much for your post, Patricia, and thank you for always stopping by my blog.
Ah, such an issue. I used to be pro-choice, but when I began to think and study what abortion is and does, I changed my views. Do agree that education is critical (about preventing pregnancy). Bouncing off of Natalie’s comment, I don’t consider myself as anti-women’s rights, but an advocate for unborn babies, since they can’t speak for themselves.
And, bouncing off of Tameri’s comment, I think most people who think as I do care more that the baby has a CHANCE to live, regardless of his or her sexual orientation.
I have many friends who adopt, both from within the U.S. and outside, and the biggest problems with U.S. adoptions is the huge fees, long wait, and incredible red tape. Most of them go the route of private adoptions in the U.S.. Also, there are huge issues within minority cultures about adoption, so that becomes another hurdle for U.S. adoptions.Anyway – that’s some of the reasons American families adopt outside the borders.
Trust we can still be friends? ♥
Bridgette, sharing and respecting opposing opinions is part of what makes our community so strong. There are pros and cons to both arguments and we decide where our heart and mind lie.
Friends always.
Bridgette, of course! Being able to disagree and still maintain friendship is what makes this world the fabulous place it is.
😀 Thanks Patricia and Tameri! It’s soooo nice to be able to discuss important matters among friends. {hug}