Kelly Doig's Major Paper Presentation: "A Right without Access is no Right at All”: The Canadian Abortion Rights Action League, 1974-1988."
Date and Time
Location
MacKinnon Ext. Rm. 2020
Details
In 1969, the Canadian government passed the Criminal Law Amendment Act which
decriminalized abortion under specific circumstances. The law allowed legal abortions only if a
committee of three doctors found that the mother’s health was at risk and if the doctor performed
the abortion in an accredited hospital. However, over the next two decades Canadian women
faced many obstacles in obtaining legal abortions until, in 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada’s
decision in R v. Morgentaler found the law to be unconstitutional. This major research paper
focuses on the work of the Canadian Association for the Repeal of the Abortion Law (CARAL,
later the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League), founded in 1974, which was the only
national organization focused on the decriminalization of abortion. CARAL had both a national
office and regional and provincial chapters across Canada. Through an examination of CARAL’s
archival material and select Canadian newspapers, this analysis charts the involvement of
CARAL chapters in national and regional activism. CARAL chapters were instrumental to the
success of national campaigns, while also engaging in grassroots activism tailored to their
provincial and regional circumstances.
Advisor: Matthew Hayday
Committee: Catherine Carstairs