In recognition of
International Women's Day this Monday March 8th, I thought it would be interesting to create a dialogue about women's rights and allied issues in our respective countries - not only as they are today, but to also look back and see how far - or how little - things have progressed. Equally important is to also remember the individual women (and women's groups) who have spurred these important changes.
While there are a number of women who have brought about important events in Canadian history - the "Famous Five", MP Margaret Mitchell...the list goes on...), I'll focus on some women who sought reproductive choice - access to safe, legal abortion. I recall reading about them in one of my Womens Studies courses and I heard an interview with one of the participants just this morning.
In a nutshell, this all began at (my beloved) Simon Fraser University in the late 1960's. Universities back then were hotbeds of "radicalism" - including women who spoke out for women's rights - including access to safe - and
legal abortion. This group of women (see what happens when "uppity" women are allowed an education?) later formed the Vancouver Women's Caucus.
They were the driving force behind the cross-country march on Parliament in order to demand this right. This was all done without the benefit of cell phones or email. The "caravan" left Vancouver and, along the way, other women joined them. Like the suffragettes some 50 years earlier, they chained themselves to objects to thwart their being removed. They would be heard in Parliament - not escorted out of it. Their efforts put the abortion issue into the spotlight, and ultimately contributed to its eventual de-criminalization. Abortion was COMPLETELY removed from the Canadian Criminal Code in 1988 - eighteen years later.
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For those who weren't alive in 1969, the year doctors were first allowed to prescribe the birth control pill for uses other than 'cycle regulation,' the idea of women throwing themselves down sets of stairs, puncturing their uteruses with knitting needles or having abortions on a kitchen table may seem positively medieval.
For those who haven't faced the hundreds of calls from desperate women only to see a few dozen accepted for legal hospital abortions ' for those who haven't seen supportive doctors arrested while colleagues stood silently by ' for those who don't know any of the estimated one million North American women having abortions every year by 1969, it is easy to dismiss the rebellion on Parliament Hill as quaint, even forgettable.
For Christabelle Sethna, a historian well published in the area of women's sexuality, the Abortion Caravan expanded the definition of 'rebellion' to include women and their fight to control their reproductive labour. As a teacher, she warns her students of the danger in viewing this rebellion as 'over and done with.'
In fact, she points to early warning signs that this story has the potential to circle backward against women's right to choose. From:
http://www.canadiansforchoice.ca/cfcinthenews1.html(The above link gives a fascinating account of the manner in which the women of the Abortion Caravan gained access to the Parliament).
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