Focusing on four jurisdictions where abortion facilities and providers faced violent attacks following the Morgentaler decision of 1988, this study compares provincial government responses to core feminist demands in the area of women's reproductive health: enhanced hospital access, public funding of clinic abortions and safe zone protections. Consistent with previous research on childcare and anti-violence policies, the study finds that in neoliberal times, the presence of left governing parties in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario generally favoured abortion rights interests while conservative regimes disadvantaged them. The article contributes valuable new insights in revealing (1) the importance of centrist leaders in Ontario and at the federal level to pro-choice policy changes, (2) the significance of feminist critical actors to these outcomes, and (3) major variation among New Democratic Party provincial governments on abortion policy. The conclusion discusses implications of these results and proposes directions for further research.

This paper reviews the history of Bill 53, the Freedom of Informed Choice (Abortions) Act. A private member’s bill introduced in the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly in 1985, Bill 53 would have imposed additional consent requirements on women seeking abortions. After concerns about its constitutionality were raised, the Bill was referred to the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal, which found it fell outside provincial jurisdiction. This paper explores the connection between Bill 53 and its more well-known cousins, Morgentaler and Borowski, and examines judicial and political decision-making in the early Charter era.

In this article, I examine the standard assumption that ethical disagreements on abortion and human embryonic stem cells research are grounded on metaphysical claims that underlie these ethical issues. Contrary to what some philosophers have claimed, I argue that, although the bioethical positions about the human embryo’s moral status are partly grounded on metaphysical claims, incorporating metaphysical arguments in the debates about the ethics of reproduction will not resolve this issue.