Author: Harmehar Bhutta
The Liberal party under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been governing Canada since 2015. This party has not made any major changes to abortion laws in Canada allowing it to remain relatively unregulated and covered as a free medical procedure. In fact they have aimed to increase the ease of access to abortion for its citizens under the idea that it is a form of healthcare (Government, 2024). Justin Trudeau has officially resigned after facing heavy criticism and allowed the liberal party to search for his replacement. This will more than likely result in a reelection later this year to decide the new prime minister of Canada. According to the current polls the next Prime Minister will be Pierre Polivere, the leader of the Conservative party (Grenier, 2025).
So, how could this change in the majority government affect abortion policies in Canada? According to Polivere’s office, the conservative platform does not include any changes to the current regulation of abortion (Montreal, 2024). However, this is not the case with the MPs in his caucus consistently proving to support the opposite. Conservative MP Arnold Viersen has presented an anti-abortion petition in parliament while other conservative MPs have given public funding to anti-abortion lobby groups (McKenna, 2024). In fact, Conservative MP Alain Rayes left the party due to what he deemed was growing anti-abortion sentiment (McKenna, 2024). Blaine Higgs the former Conservative Premier of New Brunswick refused to give funding to clinics for surgical abortion resulting in the closure of a clinic and thereby limiting access to the procedure for people in the area (Urquhart, 2020). Although Pierre may say one thing it seems that there is still anti abortion sentiment within his party.
What does this mean for those who may use Canada’s abortion services? From 2007 to 2022, Canada has seen around 100,000 abortions a year showcasing the high usage of this medical service (Abortion, 2024). Limiting access to these procedures would ultimately affect the most vulnerable of our population. According to the Commonwealth Fund, limiting access to abortion can have severe negative consequences including denial of emergency care in life-threatening situations, increased rates of preterm births, and infant and maternal mortality (Seervai et al., 2023). While there is limited research done in Canada about the statistics of the ethnicities of people seeking an abortion it is likely to mirror that of the United States where they find that more than 60 percent of the people seeking an abortion are people of colour (Abrams, 2023). This showcases that any changes to abortion legislature would proportionally impact people of colour at a higher rate than others. Another thing to note is the impact that this could have on indigenous women in Canada. Indigenous women are currently exposed to barriers in accessing abortion that non-indigenous women are not. These barriers such as distance and mistreatment will only be exacerbated with increased regulation (Monchalin et al., 2023).
Citations
Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada. (2024, April 18). Abortion Statistics in Canada. Statistics – Abortion in Canada . https://www.arcc-cdac.ca/media/2020/07/statistics-abortion-in-canada.pdf
Abrams, Z. (2023, April 14). Abortion bans cause outsized harm for people of color. Monitor on Psychology. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2023/06/abortion-bans-harm-people-of-color
Government of Canada. (2024, September 28). Statement by the prime minister on international safe abortion day. Prime Minister of Canada. https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/statements/2024/09/28/statement-prime-minister-international-safe-abortion-day
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