Abortion in Canada

The Law

Before 1969 the law permitted abortion only when necessary to preserve the life of the mother.

The law was amended on May 14, 1969 to allow abortion in cases where "the continuation of the pregnancy...would be likely to endanger the life or health of the mother". The word "health" was never defined. Abortions were to be performed in accredited hospitals with the approval of a therapeutic abortion committee of three doctors.

On January 28, 1988 the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the 1969 law (Section 251 of the Criminal Code of Canada) for procedural reasons related to Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Court deemed it an infringement on the security rights of a woman to have a panel of doctors decide that she could not obtain an abortion.

Since 1988, there has been no law regarding abortion. Attempts by Parliament have failed to enact legislation on the matter. By omission, the preborn baby enjoys no legal protection what-so-ever in Canada. As it stands today, Section 223 of the Criminal Code states:

A child becomes a human being within the meaning of this Act when it has completely proceeded, in a living state, from the body of its mother, whether or not it has breathed; it has an independent circulation; or the navel string is severed. A person commits homicide when he causes injury to a child before or during its birth as a result of which the child dies after becoming a human being. R.S., c. C-34, s. 206. ( * According to the Code, killing a preborn baby is not homicide; however, injuring a pre-born baby so that it dies after being born is a homicide. ) *Editor's note

Although there is technically no cut-off point at which abortion is not permitted, abortion advocates argue that access to late-term abortions is difficult in Canada. Most doctors refuse to perform them and many clinics have policies that will not permit abortion past 24 weeks. There is, however, ample evidence to conclude that very late term abortions are performed in hospitals and some clinics in Canada.

Statistic Canada reports that 4.8% of abortions are performed past 16 weeks.

Statistics Canada

Statistics Canada began reporting the total number of annual abortions in 1970, when 11,152 abortions were performed. Statistics Canada reported that there were 96,815 induced abortions performed on Canadian women in 2005. The report stated that this is down 3.2% from the previous year's 100,093 reported abortions. However, it has been admitted by abortion doctors that the number of reported abortions does not reflect the actual number.

Health care providers do not agree that data gathered by Statistics Canada adequately reflect the numbers of abortions being performed annually. In a Globe and Mail article, it states that, "I think the data that they have is not sufficient. I can think of at least 10,000 procedures that are happening every year in Toronto that aren't being counted," referring to abortions being done in doctors' offices or clinics that are not licensed by Ontario. *

Given the above consideration, Statistics Canada reported that 28.3 abortions were performed for every 100 live births in 2005.

Between 1970 and 2005, approximately 2,889,167 abortions have been performed in Canada.

Abortion was legalized over 30 years ago before ultrasound and medical advances made the unborn baby accessible to the world. For instance, now we know from standard university textbooks that preborn babies startle, respond to light, sound, touch and pain from about 8 weeks from fertilization.**

* Hayley Mick, Abortion rate keeps dropping, Globe and Mail, May 22, 2008

* Michael Cole, Sheila R. Cole, Cynthia Lightfoot, 2005, The Development of Children, 5th Edition, Worth Publishers, New York, pp. 77-80.