Abortion and Reproductive Rights

Women’s reproductive rights, including the right to abortion, are increasingly under attack in North America. In 2006, the South Dakota Legislature voted a law that would make it a crime for doctors to perform an abortion unless it was necessary to save a woman’s life. The law makes no exception for cases of rape or incest.

Closer to home, several members of the Harper Conservative minority government and Cabinet are a part of the anti-choice movement. NAWL remains vigilant to protect and reinforce women’s reproductive rights in Québec and Canada.

Briefs

The American Convention on Human Rights is an important human rights instrument, yet it contains a right to life provision. Ratification could have important consequences for women’s reproductive rights in Canada.

• Ratifying the American Convention on Human Rights: The Stakes for Women (November 2003)
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Open Letters

• August 11, 2004: NAWL wrote to the Minister of Foreign Affairs to raise the question of whether and how Canada should ratify the American Convention on Human Rights.
• February 2004: NAWL will not endorse ratification of the American Convention until we have the assurance that women’s reproductive rights, including the right to abortion, will be effectively guaranteed. NAWL wrote to the Minister of Foreign Affairs to let him know about our concern.

Jurisfemme Articles

• Fall 2003: “The American Convention on Human Rights is part of the “regional solution”, by Lucie Lamarche
• Winter 2002: “Feminist Perspectives on the Draft Federal Assisted Human Reproduction Act”