Synopses & Reviews
The United States and Ireland are not the only places where the abortion rights debate currently exists. This book represents the collaboration of three established scholars (two political scientists and one lawyer) to document and analyze the abortion saga in Canada from the legalization of therapeutic abortions in 1969 to the debates over new legislation in 1990. Through the integration of political, legislative, and constitutional dimensions of the issue, this work examines the evolution of abortion policy in Canada.
Review
"It is a powerful book that not only details the history of the issue in the Dominion, but also lends insight into key differences between Canada and the United states."--Contemporary Sociology
"The Politics of Abortion provides a pithy introduction to the abortion debate in Canada."--Women and Politics
Synopsis
On 28 January 1988 the Supreme Court of Canada, in its landmark decision, Morgentaler v The Queen, ruled that the existing federal law regulating abortion violated women's 'security of the person' and therefore was unconstitutional. With one stroke of the judicial gavel, Canada's top court set in motion an intensive round of abortion politics culminating in a parliamentary stalemate and no new abortion law. The Politics of Abortion: Representations of Women in Canada critically examines the politics of abortion in Canada leading up to and after the historic Morgentaler decision. In essays by three established feminist scholars in political science and law, the book traces the dramatic changes in the politics of abortion in the past twenty-five years. It describes the emergence of competing political claims, new social actors, innovative and intense organizational activity, and new sites of struggle.
Table of Contents
1. The Politics of Abortion
2. Getting to Morgentaler: From One Representation to Another
3. Choice and No Choice in the House
4. Beyond Morgantaler: The Legal Regulation of Reproduction
Appendix A: The Criminal Code
Appendix B: Spearkers `Sense of the House' Debate, July 1988