With the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Susan Bryson recalls her late sister’s decision to have an abortion in 1967, when the procedure was still illegal in Canada.
Bryson’s sister, Kate Daller, was 19 at the time, she said. After Brisson’s family moved from northern British Columbia to Toronto, Dahler became pregnant. After living in Toronto for just two years, Bryson’s family was unable to find a doctor willing to perform an abortion in the city, she said.
“My mom contacted our old family doctor that we knew from Vancouver and she asked him to help us and he agreed,” Bryson told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview Wednesday.
About three months into her pregnancy, Dahler flew to British Columbia for a surgical abortion.
“That poor young woman, terrified, [was] put on a plane for an illegal procedure … with a doctor who was terrible,” Bryson said. “As I fly home, [she was] hemorrhage [and] continued to bleed for several days at home before finally being taken by ambulance to hospital.
At that point, Dahler remained in the hospital for several days and was questioned about whether she had an illegal abortion, Bryson said. The doctor who performed the procedure also told Bryson’s family never to contact him again.
In the late 1970s, when Bryson herself decided to have an abortion, her experience was completely different from that of her sister, who died in 2019. Bryson was in her early 20s when she became pregnant, despite using the Dalkon Shield, an intrauterine contraceptive device.
“We were poor … We didn’t have anything to offer a kid at that point,” Bryson said.
Soon after finding out she was pregnant, Bryson visited her GP, who she says supported her decision to have an abortion. Since 1969, it has been legal to perform abortions in Canada under limited circumstances. In 1988, the procedure was completely decriminalized. In less than a month, Bryson had the procedure done at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.
“Everything went very smoothly. There was no fighting, no one was rude to me,” Bryson said.
Bryson is one of several women who contacted CTVNews.ca to share their experiences with obtaining an abortion in Canada. But according to Megan Doherty, Action Canada’s director of global policy and advocacy for sexual health and rights, access to abortion is not as easy for all Canadians as it was for Bryson, even today, even though the procedure is legal.
“I don’t think it’s the same experience across Canada,” Doherty told CTVNews.ca on Wednesday in a phone interview.
GEOGRAPHICAL BARRIERS IN RURAL AREAS
In 2016, a report by the United Nations Human Rights Commissioners highlighted the alarming lack of access to abortion and related services in Canada. Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights has a free and confidential phone and text line that receives an average of 250 to 400 calls each month from those seeking information about abortion and other reproductive health services. One of the main concerns among callers is the lack of abortion providers in their community, especially among those who live in rural areas, Doherty said.
“We see a lot of smaller hospitals in these areas are struggling with staffing and the types of services they can offer,” Doherty said. “It also affects the availability of abortion care.”
For some people, that means traveling to other parts of the country for an abortion, said Jill Doctoroff, executive director of the National Abortion Federation of Canada. This can lead to complicated travel arrangements, which may include securing childcare services if the person already has children, or taking time off from work, she said.
“In rural areas of the country [with] communities that don’t have bus or train service and your closest option for abortion care is in the next town over, which could be an hour away,” she said. “For people who have limited resources … figuring out how to pay for it can be really difficult.”
Ariane Lachance had an abortion earlier this year. Luckily, she said, she was able to get the procedure done at a women’s health clinic within walking distance of where she lives in Montreal.
Without the financial means to care for a child or the support of a partner, the 24-year-old said she cried when she found out she was pregnant.
“The only option was to have an abortion,” Lachance told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview Wednesday.
After searching for clinics online and talking to others who had previously had an abortion, she made an appointment. Within a week, Lachance underwent the procedure.
“I can’t even imagine the struggle these people have to go through traveling out of state or out of the country to get access,” she said.
RACIAL BARRIERS TO ACCESS
Since the introduction of medical abortion in 2017, which involves taking drugs to induce an abortion, the procedure has become easier to access for those in remote communities, Doctoroff said. However, medical abortions can only be prescribed for those who are less than 10 weeks pregnant.
Beyond these early stages, surgery is needed, and most of those services are provided in urban centers, Doherty said.
Those who need an abortion later in their pregnancy face additional barriers to accessing services, Doctoroff said. In provinces like Nova Scotia, surgical abortions are not performed after more than 16 weeks of pregnancy, for example. This may require people to travel to other parts of the country for the procedure. According to a study published by Action Canada on Sexual Health and Rights in 2019, no provider offers abortion services to Canadians after 23 weeks and six days of their pregnancy. Those who are this far along in their pregnancy and seek an abortion often travel to the United States for the procedure instead.
Another group that often struggles to access abortion services is immigrants, Doherty said. For those without proper documentation, it may be difficult to obtain an abortion because they may not have health insurance to cover the costs involved.
Much of the systemic racism that exists in Canadian institutions also affects those who want to access abortion services in Canada, she said. This can lead to discrimination against racial communities, such as those who are black, indigenous or colored, in seeking abortion services. The forced sterilization of Indigenous women, which continues today, is an example of the “racist treatment” faced by racist communities in hospitals, Doherty said.
“Looking at health care disparities across the country, we can see that people who are more likely to experience discrimination on a variety of grounds, including race, are more likely to experience barriers to accessing all types of health services, including abortion,” Doherty said.
SCHEDULING AND SHAME AROUND ABORTIONS
Despite its decriminalization in Canada in 1988, the stigma surrounding abortion remains, Doherty said.
“We live in a patriarchal society with specific gender norms and anything to do with sexuality and gender that goes beyond that very narrow framework is often scrutinized and with that comes stigma,” she said.
The more people talk about abortion and work to ensure it’s available to everyone in Canada, the easier it will be to normalize it as a common procedure and break down the stigma, Doherty said.
For Jen Howson, who lives in Calgary, the abortion process in 2018 was relatively seamless, she said. At the age of 38, Howson unexpectedly became pregnant. She and her husband already have a child together and are not in the financial position to have another, she said.
“In this case, [abortion] was an option … that was available to me and I had to make a choice,” Howson told CTVNews.ca on Wednesday in a phone interview. “If you tie it to things that happen south of the border, they don’t have that choice.”
After calling to make an appointment, Howson said she had a surgical abortion within weeks of her first trimester at a nearby hospital.
“I did a quick Google search, found the phone number to call [and] I called them,” Howson said, describing the process of keeping an appointment. “It was quick and easy … that’s the way it should be when it comes to anything about our health.”
Despite the relatively easy process, Howson said she faced mental barriers related to the stigma surrounding abortion, fearing that others might second-guess her for the procedure.
In addition to her 2018 abortion, Howson previously underwent a dilation and curettage procedure in 2011. Howson had the procedure, which is considered an early-term abortion method, after suffering a miscarriage.
“Abortions are also done because they are medically necessary,” she said. “We shouldn’t be ashamed to have these types of procedures.”
By sharing her story, Howson hopes to contribute to a conversation where people realize it’s okay to talk about open abortion. Part of the solution also lies in health care providers being more vocal about the abortions they provide, said Dr. Sarah Munro, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of British Columbia.
While most people may think they have to go to an abortion clinic, medical abortions in particular can be accessed through primary care providers, she said.
“It can be challenging, because of internalized stigma, for a client to ask their primary care provider about abortion options,” Munroe told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview Wednesday. “In turn, it can be a challenge for primary care…
Add Comment