Pro Choice Movement Analysis

Canada is one of the only countries that has no criminal law restricting abortion whatsoever and this situation is because of the work done by the Pro Choice movement. First off, the movement strived to make multiple appearances in the media through protests, rallies, and demonstrations. Secondly, legal debates involving the nature of laws against abortion were often brought to court which gave activists chances to argue against current legislation. Also, one of the key tactics employed during the movement was educating the public. Therefore, the Pro Choice movement waged a tactically effective campaign to achieve its goals.
Public demonstrations were a vital part of the Pro Choice movement and people of all kind showed their opposition to
Morgentaler was continuously brought into court for the act of his illegal abortions and he was finally sent to jail for an 18 month term in 1975 after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal. After only serving 10 months in jail he was released and opened a new Toronto Clinic that was again raided by police which caused further charges to be laid upon him and his clinical staff members. Author Hargreaves states that “the defense motioned to challenge the constitutional validity of the Criminal Code” (Hargreaves). While the judge dismissed this line of defense and the Ontario-Attorney General appealed the acquittal decision, the jury acquitted all health professionals which showed that the law didn’t necessarily represent the values of the civilian population. This situation fueled further controversy and conversation about change of these laws. Additionally, in the earlier parts of the movement, the Royal Commission on the Status of Women were “convened” by the federal government (Ling). The commission gave a report on women’s affair after three years of public hearings. It bore the recommendation that abortion should be made legal within the first twelve weeks of pregnancy and after the twelve weeks, abortion would only be legal if the mother’s health was in danger or the child was predicted to be severely handicapped. Finally, in
One prime example would be social worker Dorothea Palmer, who was charged under the Criminal Code for giving information about birth control before the 1969 legalization. The work done by Palmer allowed women more accessibility to birth control even if it was currently criminalized. Additionally, after Morgentaler had released a statement claiming he had performed over five thousand safe abortions (as mention earlier), he proceeded to do a live demonstration of an abortion on national television. This media display aimed to educate the audience on the safety of abortions when done by a health care professional and also served to attract patients to his clinics where he was known to do illegal abortions without the approval of the therapeutic abortion committee. Finally, after the legalization of abortion by the Supreme Court, multiple organizations were founded such as The BC Coalition for Abortion Clinics (now called the Pro-Choice Action Network) in order to not only establish abortion clinics but also provide education to the women in order to make the procedure more assessable. The national networks are meant to “advance sexual and reproductive health and rights through education, advocacy and support the delivery programs and services in Canada (Ling). Therefore, the Pro Choice movement used education as one of their tactics in order to disband common