Abortion care is a provincial and federal election issue

The topic of abortion rights has entered the provincial political conversation, as Nova Scotia’s NDP have called out the PC Party for allowing a pro-life incumbent to run for their party.

The NSNDP has accused incumbent MLA John Lohr of being anti-abortion, citing a 2018 interview he did with RightNow, a right-wing anti-abortion group, where he said he wants the federal government to restrict abortion rights nationwide.

“I would like to see the federal government put parameters around abortion,” said the Kings North MLA in the interview. He continued, “I don’t like that there are no laws around how late an abortion can happen in Canada. I understand that there are people in the PC Party who are pro-choice, but I would personally support pro-life initiatives.”

John Lohr told RightNow in 2018 that he was “pro-life,” stating that he would like to see restrictions around abortion in Canada. Credit: Communications Nova Scotia

Thankfully, as Lohr notes in the interview, abortion rights are a federal issue—though there have been instances in the past of conservative governments attempting to restrict abortion rights, and the provinces aren’t completely powerless when it comes to abortion.

History of abortion in Canada

In 1969, abortion became legal in Canada, but only if the woman’s life was in danger. This was overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1988—six years after the Charter and Rights and Freedoms was introduced—in R v. Morgentaler, where it was found the government had no right to intervene in a woman’s wishes on whether or not to carry a fetus to term.

“Forcing a woman, by threat of criminal sanction to carry a foetus to term unless she meets certain criteria unrelated to her own priorities and aspirations, is a profound interference with a woman’s body and thus a violation of her security of the person,” wrote Chief Justice Brian Dickeson at the time, using the then-standard term for fetus.

That did not end the efforts to restrict abortions in Canada, as Brian Mulroney’s government nearly managed to introduce Bill C-43 in the early 1990s. This bill would have seen doctors jailed for two years if they performed abortions on women whose health was not at risk. The bill passed the House of Commons, but it came to a tie vote in the Senate so was rejected.

Since then, there has been no legislation introduced to restrict abortion rights on the federal level, though abortion has been affected provincially—typically for the betterment of those seeking abortions. Nova Scotia, Newfoundland Labrador, and PEI all passed legislation mandating protestors to stay back a certain distance from health centres and doctor’s offices providing abortion care.

New Brunswick also overturned its archaic abortion policies in 2014, which required two doctors to sign off that the procedure was medically required. More recently, New Brunswick’s new Liberal premier Susan Holt repealed a ban on public funding for abortion clinics.

Abortion as an election issue

Nova Scotia’s PC Party has claimed the NDP brought up Lohr’s statements as a way to fearmonger, and premier Tim Houston did briefly state in a press event that he and his party are both pro-choice. There have been no formal comments made on Lohr’s previous statements from the PCs, yet the NDP have pinned Lohr and his party as politicians threatening reproductive rights and freedoms.

In the wake of Lohr’s resurfaced interview, PC Party leader Tim Houston said he and his party are both “pro-choice.” Credit: Communications Nova Scotia

“It’s very alarming that Tim Houston would let someone run under his banner, let alone appoint them to cabinet, when they’ve openly expressed these regressive views,” NSNDP leader Claudia Chender said in a press release on Nov 13. “The government has no business interfering with people’s reproductive rights and freedoms. And John Lohr has no right to tell women what they can and can’t do with their own bodies.”

The NSNDP have slammed Houston and his party for not standing up on this issue—especially when the premier claims his party is pro-choice—accusing them of catering to anti-abortion activists for their vote by not speaking up about Lohr’s prior comments. Lohr’s office was reached for comment but did not respond before publication.

Abbey Ferguson, the executive director of the Halifax Sexual Health Centre, says Nova Scotia is in an amazing place when it comes to abortion care. Abortion is widely available and kept completely confidential, and while access in rural areas could be improved, it serves Nova Scotians much better than other provinces where access is limited to urban centres.

However, Ferguson warns that politicians on the campaign trail may speak differently when it comes to their votes in the legislature.

“Even if you say as a party head, ‘I have no intention of doing that,’ if your actual party members are individually all anti-choice, that definitely informs something that might happen in the future,” says Ferguson in an interview with The Coast.

Although there is a limited amount provinces can do on the abortion issue, Ferguson says they can still greatly impact access through funding decisions, where abortion care can be accessed, or even if doctors are being paid a fair wage for delivering abortion care.

“Even if it feels like this is a federal responsibility, it is very relevant, how your provincial candidates respond and feel about abortion access,” says Ferguson.

This also drifts over into gender-affirming care, according to Ferguson, as they both deal with bodily autonomy, and their advocates and detractors often use similar arguments to push for their stance.

Could there be federal legislation?

There is only so much the province can do about abortion access. Whether or not it is allowed, or how restricted it is, is mostly done on a federal level.

While the federal Conservative Party is indeed socially conservative on several fronts, leader Pierre Poilievre has stated that his party has no plans to legislate against abortion if they come into power during the next federal election.

However, the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada has released a list of MPs who are anti-abortion, which includes the majority of Conservative MPs, many of them having voted for Bill C-311. This bill would have seen an “aggravated circumstance” clause added to the criminal code for violence against pregnant persons.

On the surface, this bill seems innocuous, but critics such as the Abortion Rights Coalition derided the bill for being a tool to push for fetal rights, kowtowing to anti-abortion activists. Liberal MPs seemed to agree, and the bill was defeated at a second reading in June 2023.

A Leger poll from earlier this year found 80% of Canadians are in favour of a person’s right to have an abortion, with only 11% opposing. Even if the true number of those opposing abortions is higher than this poll shows, the result is so lopsided as to suggest a national vote on anti-abortion legislation would not be popular in Canada, and could indeed cost votes for whatever party wants to implement it.

That’s obviously not the situation in the United States, where abortion was on many ballots in the recent elections. With reproductive rights under attack to our south, and American media so prevalent here, there’s always a fear that it could also happen in Canada. However, our law functions much differently from theirs. Canadian abortion rights are enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. America’s right to abortion was decided by a now-overturned federal court ruling.

But even if it seems like abortion in Canada is safe for now, Ferguson says it should always be at the top of our minds when voting in an election, provincial or federal.

“I think you should always be looking at abortion as an election issue,” she says. “One statement pre-election, as we know with any kind of policy, is not a guarantee once you’re on the other side.”

Nova Scotia’s provincial election is set to take place on Tuesday, Nov 26.