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Without Apology: Writings on Abortion in Canada

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Without Apology: Writings on Abortion in Canada Without Apology Without Apology Writings on Abortion in Canada Edited by Shannon Stettner Copyright © 2016 Shannon Stettner Published by AU Press, Athabasca University 1200, 10011 – 109 Street, Edmonton, AB T5J 3S8 ISBN 978-1-77199-159-9 (pbk.) 978-1-77199-160-5 (PDF) 978-1-77199-161-2 (epub) doi: 10.15215/aupress/9781771991599.01 Cover design by Marvin Harder, marvinharder.com. Interior design by Sergiy Kozakov. Printed and bound in Canada by Friesens. Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Without apology : writings on abortion in Canada / edited by Shannon Stettner. Includes bibliographical references. Issued in print and electronic formats. 1. Abortion—Canada. 2. Abortion—Canada—History. 3. Abortion—Canada— Anecdotes. I. Stettner, Shannon, editor HQ767.5.C2W58 2016 362.1988’80971 C2016-902290-0 C2016-902291-9 We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CFB) for our publishing activities. Assistance provided by the Government of Alberta, Alberta Media Fund. This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons License, Attribution– Noncommercial–NoDerivative Works 4.0 International: see www.creativecommons.org. The text may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, provided that credit is given to the original author. To obtain permission for uses beyond those outlined in the Creative Commons license, please contact AU Press, Athabasca University, at [email protected]. Contents Acknowledgements ix Without Apology: An Introduction / Shannon Stettner 3 A Brief History of Abortion in Canada / Shannon Stettner 31 pART One SpeAking fROm expeRience An Abortion Palimpsest: Writing the Hidden Stories of Our Bodies / Judith Mintz 77 T.A. / Clarissa Hurley 83 But I Kept All These Things, and Pondered Them in My Heart / Jess Woolford 91 Keep It Small / E.K. Hornbeck 99 A Bad Law and a Bold Woman / Bernadette Wagner 113 A Lonely Ride / Kristen 117 [untitled] / Mackenzie 123 part TwO AbortiOn RighTS AcTiviSm Reproductive Freedom: The Ontario Coalition for Abortion Clinics and the Campaign to Overturn the Federal Abortion Law / Carolyn Egan and Linda Gardner 131 Handmaids on the Hill: Defending Our Rights One Womb at a Time / Aalya Ahmad and the Radical Handmaids 139 Breaking the Silence Through Portrait and Story: Arts4Choice / Martha Solomon 151 “We Can Get There Faster If We All Move Together”: The Birth and Evolution of a Reproductive Justice Activist / Colleen MacQuarrie 157 Waves of Change in Prince Edward Island: Opening the Dialogue on Abortion Access / Sadie Roberts 163 part ThRee ChAllenging OppOSing PosiTiOnS Blinded by the Right: My Past as an Anti-abortion Activist / Natalie Lochwin 169 One Life Change Leads to Another: My Evolving View of Abortion / Tracey L. Anderson 179 Pro-Choice for God’s Sake / Shannon West 183 Pro-choice with No “Buts”: Three Commentaries / Laura Wershler 191 Expanding the Reproductive Justice Lexicon: A Case for the Label Pro-abortion / Laura Gillespie 201 Same as It Ever Was: Anti-Choice Extremism and the “Third Way” / Jane Cawthorne 209 Women over Ideology / Nick Van der Graaf 231 part fOur PracTiTiOners And clinic Support Dissolving Fear, Fostering Trust: Lessons from Life in Abortion Care / Peggy Cooke 239 “Do you think I will go to hell for this?” / Ruth Miller 243 Countering Shame with Compassion: The Role of the Abortion Counsellor / Erin Mullan 247 Women Judging Women: Whose Reasons Are “Good Enough”? Whose Choice Is OK? / Ellen Wiebe 255 Therapeutic Abortion: A Nonnegotiable Women’s Right / Sterling Haynes 257 On Becoming an Abortion Provider: An Interview / Shannon Stettner and “Dr. James” 261 part five SiTeS Of Struggle The Myth of Reproductive Choice: A Call for Radical Change / Karen Stote 277 Sex-Selective Abortion and the Politics of Race in Multicultural Canada / H. Bindy K. Kang 289 The Public Pregnancy: How the Fetal Debut and the Public Health Paradigm Affect Pregnancy Practice / Jen Rinaldi 305 A Harm-Reduction Approach to Abortion / Shannon Dea 317 The Unfinished Revolution / Shannon Stettner 333 List of Contributors 349 Acknowledgements The first acknowledgment belongs to my friend and colleague Kristin Burnett, who encouraged me to pursue this project. She has gener- ously reviewed several chapters, and I appreciate her support, advice, and friendship throughout. I extend my deepest gratitude to all of the contributors who have shared their stories, experiences, ideas, and research. I’m thankful that they have entrusted me with their words. Their voices are brave, powerful, intelligent, compassionate, and inspiring. I am indebted to the wonderful people at Athabasca University Press; their commitment to this collection has made for a rewarding relationship. In particular, I am grateful to Megan Hall, for her dir- ection and support, and, especially, to Pamela Holway, who has been a thoughtful guide, pushing my analysis and prose, helping the book achieve greater clarity and sense of purpose. Thanks as well to the anonymous reviewers who were as excited about the project as I am. ix doi: 10.15215/aupress/9781771991599.01 My works builds on the wonderful scholarship and activism of many his- torians, feminists, and social commentators. Their commitment to this issue and to social justice is inspiring. Finally, I am grateful for my family and friends and for their love and support over the several years of this project. How lucky am I that I get to spend each day with my favourite two and four-legged beings: I am blessed beyond measure. x Acknowledgements doi: 10.15215/aupress/9781771991599.01 Without Apology Without Apology An Introduction Shannon Stettner For a very long time, the voices that spoke publicly about abortion were mostly those of men—politicians, clergy, lawyers, physicians, all of whom had an interest in regulating women’s bodies. Even today, when women speak openly about abortion, the voices are of those who are professionally or politically invested in the topic. We hear most frequently from journalists and leaders of women’s and abortion rights organizations, sometimes from women who hold political office, and, on occasion, from female physicians. We also hear quite frequently from spokeswomen for anti-abortion groups. Rarely, however, do we hear the voices of women who have made the decision to terminate a pregnancy. Yet without hearing from these women—without giving them a place to speak about their experien- ces and to share their ideas on abortion—we run the risk of thinking and talking about the issue only in the abstract. This collection was inspired in part by some of my earlier research, which focused on the politics of abortion in English Canada during 3 doi: 10.15215/aupress/9781771991599.01 the 1960s, a decade marked by public pressure to decriminalize abortion.1 Perhaps unsurprisingly, women’s voices were often muted in historical accounts of the period—a familiar form of discursive erasure. As I discov- ered, however, women were speaking up and in fact took an active part in the debates surrounding the need for abortion law reform. What was lacking, and to some extent still is, was not merely public space for their voices but the will to hear them. As Arundhati Roy argues, “There’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless.’ There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.”2 Despite a subsequent lack of recognition, the sharing of women’s experiences with and ideas on abortion was integral to the political change that occurred during the 1960s. Such sharing is, in my view, essential to the struggle to ensure that abortion is not only legal but also safe and accessible in Canada and elsewhere in the world. Only by speaking openly and honestly to one another and attending closely to the situations and thoughts of those who have had an abortion will women, and men, be able to move beyond the polarizing rhetoric that has characterized the issue for so long. Invisible Stigmata In 1992, two scholars, Carolyn Ellis and Arthur Bochner, wrote as a couple about their unplanned pregnancy and decision to opt for abortion. They chose to share their experience in part because they firmly believed that the “act of telling a personal story is a way of giving voice to experiences that are shrouded in secrecy.”3 Commenting on the limited scope of narratives about abortion, they wrote: “We know little about the details of the emotional and cognitive processes that are associated with living through this experience. The stories that are told are primarily about illegal abortions performed in back rooms or dark alleys, couched in generalities, and disclosed many years after they occur.”4 These often harrowing tales seek to portray women in as sympathetic a light as possible—typically as victims of circumstances beyond their control.5 While such narratives were crucial to the fight to decriminalize abortion, and while they serve as an important reminder of why that fight was so important, they are easily perceived as having little contemporary relevance. They sensationalize abortion, at a time when we need, instead, to make efforts to normalize this very common procedure. In addition, these stories rarely reveal the thought processes behind women’s decisions or otherwise describe situations to which women today can easily relate. Women do not see themselves reflected in these stories, and the lack 4 Introduction doi: 10.15215/aupress/9781771991599.01 of contemporary narratives that speak to their own experiences could con- tribute to the perpetuation of silence surrounding abortion. Although there have been some published accounts of Canadian women’s abortion experiences, few women speak publicly about their abortions. In 1998, the Childbirth by Choice Trust published No Choice: Canadian Women Tell Their Stories of Illegal Abortion.
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