Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #112588

Rhonda Love, PhD, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto, 12 Queen's Park Crescent West, Toronto, ON M5S 1A8, Canada, 416-978-7514, rhonda.love@utoronto.ca

In the United States there is concern that Roe v Wade is vulnerable to being overthrown with abortion being made illegal again in the United States. In Canada, while there are challenges to access to abortion there is little, if any, serious concern that the laws protecting a woman's right to abortion will be overthrown.

The two countries developed their abortion laws in the late 60's, early 70's but developed them from different legal points of view. Canadians developed laws based on a woman's “security of person” and since the late 1980's have denied any recognition of fetal or paternal rights. In addition, there have been no restrictions put on abortion procedures themselves.

Canada, unlike the U.S., has a health care system that removes up-front payment for health services as a barrier to obtaining most services, including abortion (there are some exceptions to this in some provinces). Thus, women in Canada enjoy stronger rights protections and access to abortion than do women in the U.S.

This presentation will discuss the differences in abortion protections and issues in access to abortion in the larger context of U.S. and Canadian differences as caring communities with different views of individual and collective rights to health and health care. References will also be made to the larger international view of reproductive rights in the context of human rights.

Learning Objectives:

• To demonstrate the different beginning points of protection of acess to abortion in the U.S. and Canada.
• To outline the different levels of protection for access to abortion in the two countries.
• To place the discussion in the context of human rights protections.

Keywords: Abortion, Women's Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.