MANITOBA'S ABORTION STORY: The Fight for Women's Reproductive Autonomy: 1969-2005 By Aldean Stachiw A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of Sociology University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Canada @ 2006 THE T]NTVERSITY OF MANITOBA FACULTY OF GRADUATE STI]DIES coPYRrc;;i"*t rrro* MANITOBA'S ABORTION STORY: The Fight for Women's Reproductive Autonomy: 1969-2005 BY Aldean Stachiw A Thesis/Practicum submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba in partial fulfillment of the requirement of the degree OF MASTER OF ARTS Aldean Stachiw @ 2006 Permission has been granted to the Library of the University of Manitoba to lend or sell copies of this thesis/practicumrio the National Library of Canada to microfÏlm this thesis and to lend or sell copies of the film, and to University Microfitms Inc. to publish an abstract of this thesis/practicum. This reproduction or copy of this thesis has been made available by authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research, and may only be reproduced and copied as permitted by copyright laws or with express written authorization from the copyright owner. ABSTRACT This thesis reviews the historical development of abortion services in Winnipeg, Manitoba from 1969 to the present. Using feminist and social movement theory, it tracks how abortion was represented as a political issue, how it was regulated and how different players shaped the development of the current situation. The historical analysis prioritizes the significance of what abortion signalled on all sides of the issue. The thesis is framed by historically shifting periods, in the context of relatively unchanging state, economic and patriarchal power. As a multi-method historical sociological inquiry, it reveals that the major forces promoting abortion access were the women's movement, Dr. Henry Morgentaler and exceptions from among the medical community, politicians and some religious leaders. Those involved in attempts to decrease access were the anti-choice movement (largely made up of women), Joe Borowski, the medical community, religion and political parties. The thesis concludes that women's access to abortion is still precarious, and that women must be sensitized to the importance of abortion rights as a key element of reproductive autonomy ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost I would like to thank my thesis director, Dr. Susan Prentice, for her encouragement and guidance throughout this endeavour. Thank you for being available and for being so kind. I am grateful to you for taking on this project, for making it manageable and for helping me "see the forest from the trees" in more ways than one. Your feminist mind is an inspiration, from which this thesis has greatly benefited. I would like to thank Dr. Elizabeth Comack for her kind words of support and for taking such meticulous care with my project. Your editing skills are truly insurmountable and your remarkable insight and counsel aided enormously. I am fortunate to have had you on my committee. I would like to thank Dr. Adele Perry for coming into this project at a moment's notice. Thank you for interest and for your considerations. Your comments and recommendations were very beneficial and much appreciated. I have a profound new respect for historical analysis: thank you and your discipline for your insights and viewpoints. I would like to thank my interviewees for opening their homes to me and each dedicating an afternoon for the benefit of this project. I am grateful to you for sharing with me and for opening my eyes to such an enofinous amount of information. I am honoured to have met you. Without your stories, this project would have been a fraction of what it is today. Last, but never least, I would like to thank my family for their support and love over the years of my life. I would like to thank you for your understanding and tenderness during these trying last few months. It is possible that one might have considered me difficult to love while writing my thesis, but you did, and I am grateful. I would like to thank my mother for her encouragement, her fortitude and her words of composure that carried me through. Thank you for choosing me mom, and for being able to be the mother you were and continue to be. I treasure you. "If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament" (Florynce R. Kennedy cited in Rebick 2005: 35). lll TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract I Acknowledgements ii Table of Contents lv, v, vl CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION I Divided Jurisdiction 4 Province by Province: Access to Abortion 6 Organization of the Thesis 11 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS t5 Understanding the Problem: Constructions and Claims-Making 15 Social Movements 20 Feminist Accounts of Abortion and Women's Rights 22 Patriarchy 22 Capitalist Interests 27 State Interests 29 Religious Interests 33 Methodological Approach 36 Data Collection Methods 39 The Interviews 42 Organization of the Project 44 CHAPTER 3: THE BACKGROUND TO MANITOBA'S STORY: TIIE ILLEGAL YEARS _ 1977 45 Prior to 1969 46 First-Wave Feminists 47 The Church 50 The Medical Community 52 Second-V/ave Feminists and Political Response 54 The 1969 Change in the Law 57 The Badgley Report 62 CHAPTER 4: THE INITIAL YEARS OF ACTIVISM: 1972-1982 65 The Pro-Choice Movement 70 The Anti-Choice Movement 81 Joe Borowski 89 Provincial Politicians 96 The Media 100 The Church/Religious Power t02 The Medical Community 105 lv CHAPTER 5: THE UNSUCCESSFUL FIGHT FOR THE MORGENTALER CLINIC: 1982-1983 ltl The Decision to Set Up a Clinic in Manitoba ll2 V/ithin the NDP tt4 The Good Doctor and Reactions by Politicians l15 The Medical Community and the Morgentaler Clinic lZ0 The Clinic Opens 126 Joe Borowski l}g Support from the Medical Community l}g The Abortion Wars Ensue 130 Police Raids on the Clinic 133 Morgentaler's Court Case l3g CHAPTER 6: sl.o\il MOVEMENT AND HEATED PoLITrcs: 1984-1988 140 Resistance to the Women's Movement 140 Resistance within the Governing Party 146 Pro-Choice Members Within the NDp l4g The Medical Community l1z The Morgentaler Clinic 153 Anti-Choice Activities l5g The Church/Religious Power 160 The Media 162 CHAPTER 7: A PRO-CHOICE VICTORY (ONE PART REAL, ONE PART SEEMING...) AND THE AFTERMATH: 1988-2005 163 A Pro-Choice Victory 165 Joe Borowski 167 The Church 169 Anti- and Pro-Choice Activities 170 Politicians l7l The Medical Community 174 Dr. Morgentaler lZ8 Politicians 180 The Medical Community f 86 Anti-Choice lnfiltration into Hospital Boards 188 Alliances Between the Catholic Church and Hospitals lB9 Escalating Violence by Anti-Choice Activists l9l Pro-Choice Movement 193 Dr. Morgentaler 195 Jane's Clinic lgg CHAPTER 8: CONCLUSION 204 Theoretical Implications 205 Implications 2t4 Limits to the Research 217 Strengths of the Research 219 Future Research 220 REFERENCES 222 Newspaper Articles 222 Academic Sources 233 Hansard Files 240 List of Interviews 242 Appendix A 243 Appendix B 244 Ethics Application 245 Ethics Approval 254 vl CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In 1997, obstetrician and gynaecologist Jack Fainman was shot in his Winnipeg home. ln 2002, a controversy erupted over the Morgentaler Clinic in Winnipeg. In the summer of 2004, Manitoba's NDP govemment refused to fund the Jane Clinic (formerly the Morgentaler Clinic). These contemporary events serve to remind us just how contentious abortion politics are in Manitoba, and how Manitobans have struggled to resolve the abortion issue. This study examines the political context of abortion in Manitoba and traces the development of access to abortion services from 1969 to 2005. It describes how abortion ' became a political issue and how it was regulated. It uncovers the strategies, successes and failures of the major movements andorgatizations involved on all sides of the issue. The study reveals how current access to abortion services violates the Canada Health Act seemingly without repercussion. It additionally addresses the problems of divided jurisdiction and funding in Canada, identifies the people involved and describes the factors that inhibited women's access to abortion services in Manitoba. In the end, it is a story of how the reproductive rights movement rose and fell. The study shows how abortion became a social problem in Manitoba, who defined it as such and who in this province was responsible for solving the problem of abortion based on how it was interpreted. My project is both historical and sociological and it aims to provide a concrete account of what happened in Manitoba with respect to the issue of abortion and to interpret and make sense of these events. Because this is a project of historical sociology, my goal has been to work with macro-sociological ideas and associated structures (i.e. the power of the state, patriarchal relations and the power of the church through the concept ofan "experienced epoch ofsocial change" (Skocpol 1987:20). The questions that my study seeks to answer are: What were the major forces promoting gteater access to abortion and promoting decreased access to abortion? What is the history of abortion services in Manitoba from 1969 to the present? Finally, how should we understand these pro- and anti-abortion forces and this contested history? In order to answer these questions, I will review a range of theories grounded in feminism, social constructionism and social movements Two different but related strands of theoretical literature anchor this study. The first is feminist theory, exemplified by the work of Rosalind Petchesky (1990), which focuses on why and how abortion is a significant women's equality issue.