Reproductive Justice and Reproductive Rights, what’s the difference?
We are often asked: “We have the right to an abortion in Canada so what’s all this Reproductive Justice talk?” And that’s a great question. If you’ve asked yourself this, you are not alone. If you look up “rights” on Wikipedia they are defined as the “legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory.” Complicated right? In other words, rights are legal standards or conventions that are either expected of you or owed to you by your society or country, and they can vary depending on where you are. In Canada, Reproductive Rights means having a full spectrum of options when making decisions about one’s reproductive health. The right to have an abortion is a fundamental part of our reproductive rights. This wasn’t true before 1988. Before that time, abortion was illegal under the Criminal Code of Canada and was only allowed in limited hospitals after a committee of doctors approved the procedure, usually because the abortion was needed to save the pregnant person’s life. As you can imagine, having to prove why you needed an abortion to a panel of doctors slowed down access, was humiliating, and limited people’s options when it came to accessing abortions. At that time stand-alone clinics like CIHC were illegal.
Then in 1988 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the law in the Criminal Code violated Canadians’ Charter Rights and Freedoms. In the ruling R v. Morgentaler, the law was determined to be unconstitutional and was therefore struck down, meaning that part of the Criminal Code was removed. Since then, Canadians have had the right to an abortion because we don’t have any criminal laws banning abortion. But even with legal and institutional barriers removed, do we all have access to abortions when we need them? Not at all. This is where the concept of Reproductive Justice was born: the notion that a right to an abortion is meaningless without the ability to act on that right. The term Reproductive Justice was coined in 1994 when a group of women of colour, trans* people, and Indigenous women recognized that systemic barriers and systems of oppression were disproportionately limiting access to abortion for marginalized people. Within a Reproductive Justice framework, governments, institutions, providers, and others in power act to recognize and remove barriers by:
- Centering marginalized voices
- Ensuring local access to abortion providers
- Addressing issues related to poverty and income inequities
- Providing a full spectrum of reproductive health options
- Recognizing that oppression impacts self-determined family creation
What does that mean for CIHC and Reproductive Justice in Canada? Although there is no law banning abortion in Canada, there are still many barriers that prevent people from accessing the abortions they need. With a limited number of abortion providers across Canada, clients who live outside major urban centers have to drive incredible distances to access care. The cost of transit, or lack of access to a car, can make it impossible for folks living in poverty to get to their abortion appointment. Many people working in the gig economy or in jobs without paid sick days may have to take an unpaid day off work to have their procedure. When individuals experience delays accessing an abortion, they may reach a point in the pregnancy where they must travel even further and stay overnight in a hotel in a different city to complete a multi-day procedure. This gets even more complicated if the pregnant person has children at home that need to be cared for. Reproductive Justice in Canada means that if we are serious about ensuring everyone has access to abortions, then we need a nuanced understanding of how intersectional barriers and oppressions limit that access.
For more information on Reproductive Justice follow the multi-national, multi-ethnic, Reproductive Justice organization Sister Song online at: https://www.sistersong.net/ Also, follow Loretta Ross, “godmother of reproductive justice” on Twitter @lorettajross