Choices and compromises: the abortion movement in Canada 1969-1988

This dissertation explores pro-choice activism in Canada following the 1969 omnibus bill that decriminalized abortion. The 1969 legal amendments permitted abortions performed in accredited hospitals and approved by the hospital's therapeutic abortion committee, yet Canadian women continued to face barriers to access that were exacerbated by a range of social markers, particularly region and class. Activists identified these barriers and developed strategies to address these issues. The pro-choice movement worked to attain an uneasy balance between helping individual women to access services while simultaneously challenging the government to revise abortion laws. This dissertation explores the contradictions of a mass movement with a shared objective but divergent views as to how to achieve this desired end. The study also examines activists' compromises as they focused either on the immediate, time-sensitive needs of women seeking abortions, or on the long-term goals of effecting legal change.

This study highlights four different activist strategies: hospital board challenges, referral and shuttle services, demonstrations and protests, and the establishment of free-standing abortion clinics. Drawing on an extensive range of archival sources from across the country, as well as oral interviews with individuals active in the pro-choice movement, this dissertation highlights regional particularities as well as the shared pro-choice objectives across the country. Activist organizations' archival holdings illuminate both the specific tactics employed by different groups and the ways that the pro-choice movement maintained a connection to the women's movement. Abortion access emerged as a unifying marker for second wave feminisms in Canada, as a framework that facilitated a critique of patriarchal, capitalist structures while simultaneously appealing to a wide support base.