Women’s History Month
This Women’s History month we want to honour and acknowledge our clinic’s origins and those who fought to improve abortion access in Canada. We also recognize that diverse folks across the gender spectrum have not always been recognized within reproductive justice activism despite being vital to the success of these movements throughout history.
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Prior to the decriminalization of abortion in Canada many abortion providers faced fines, harassment and jail time for practicing civil disobedience working on the margins of an extremely restrictive system. One of these doctors was Nikki Colodny, a women's health advocate and activist who first trained with Dr. Henry Morgentaler in Montreal and joined his Toronto clinic in 1986. She was one of the few doctors, and only known female doctor in Canada, to announce to the media that she was performing abortions at the time. "I wasn't raised to bend in the wind," she stated in Herizons magazine. Though the national spotlight was on Morgentaler—who had become infamous across Canada for his legal battles to make abortions more accessible—anyone who publicly practiced abortions had a target on their back. Dr. Colodny faced threats of violence, her home was picketed by the anti-choice Campaign Life Coalition who tried to disrupt her son’s birthday party, and she was arrested alongside other abortion providers in 1986. She faced the risks because she was tired of seeing people in her private practice go through a gruelling process to seek an abortion, only to hit insurmountable barriers.
At the time abortions were only available in provincially approved hospitals under the endorsement of a Therapeutic Abortion Committee. The committees, consisting of three medical doctors and mostly comprised of men, followed arbitrary guidelines to determine whether an abortion was permissible. At times they reviewed a short medical history without seeing the patient, required a husband’s signature for the application to be considered, or imposed moral judgements, such as denying an abortion to a 40-year-old woman who was considered careless with contraception. The province did not require hospitals to establish committees, leaving many remote communities without access.
Dr. Colodny was committed to changing the law and joined the Ontario Coalition for Abortion Clinics, a prochoice activist group founded on the belief that women (and those who can get pregnant) have the right to choose if and when they have children. In 1985 she wrote in Broadside: A Feminist Review, “We're fighting mad and we're going to organize, and keep on organizing, until we win the repeal of the abortion law and easy access to safe, medically insured abortions in free-standing clinics.”
That victory was won on January 28, 1988 when the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the existing abortion law, declaring it unconstitutional in a 5-2 vote. The law was found to be in violation of section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms because it infringed on a woman’s right to life, liberty and security of person.
Soon after, the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons accepted that abortions may be performed in clinics, creating new opportunities for abortion providers to expand care. A group of staff at Morgentaler’s clinic known as the “Carnelian Co-op”, along with Dr. Colodny, seized the moment to form Choice in Health Clinic on Sept 27, 1988. Janet Mawhinney, one of the original Choice staff and a former Morgentaler employee said, “For a lot of us it was like a lightbulb going off. Henry had done this incredible job. It’s our turn…Let’s move into our own house and do what we want to have done. And we have a historical opportunity because of what happened in Canada’s legal system.”*
Dr. Deborah Copes, who originally trained under Morgentaler and became the Medical Director of Choice in Health in 1994, said that she joined Choice because it presented a one-of-a-kind opportunity in Toronto, “There’s three men operating for profit clinics and this is the only shot we have, likely, at having a woman run non-profit clinic.”
The original vision for the clinic was based on worker co-operative principles, such as one person=one vote, but Dr. Copes speculated that Dr. Colodny had a differing vision for the clinic’s operation, and in the end the physician was able to exert the most control over the situation, “I saw early on that there was a division between Nikki and the group and that Nikki had her own ideas.” It is alleged that heated disagreements culminated in Dr. Colodny taking the aspirator equipment home and locking staff out of the clinic.* The ensuing legal battle resulted in Dr. Colodny hiring an entirely new staff. The clinic name also changed from “Women’s Choice Health Clinic” to Choice in Health clinic. The original Carnelian Co-op members scattered, and the clinic re-opened with many new staff unaware of what transpired.
Even though Choice in Health had foundational challenges, our growing pains ultimately helped to create a stronger and more supportive organization - for staff, clients and community. We are grateful to trailblazers like Dr. Nikki Colodny, the original clinic collective, Henry Morgentaler, and many others in the reproductive justice movement who worked tirelessly to create and protect abortion services. It also bears mentioning that much information from this time period in abortion activism was not digitized, making it obscure and elusive. That’s why it’s crucial that we not forget those who put their lives on the line to secure reproductive health autonomy in Canada. Today, when these battles are still waging close to home, remembering where our hard-earned abortion rights came from is more important than ever.
*Dunphy, C. (1996). Morgentaler: A Difficult Hero : a Biography. Penguin Random House.