The topic of abortion in Canada has been and is still rife with controversy. Recent changes to societal views have shifted the way laws interact with the issues of abortion. Abortion deals with a multitude of humanistic issues. Amongst those are psychological, sociological, and moral dilemmas. As views became more modernized, social pressure influenced the development of Canadian abortion laws. Furthermore, an increase in feministic perspectives and an extremely controversial case series, R. v. Morgentaler, significantly shifted views of abortion, as well as its associated laws in Canada.
There have been geographical issues within Canada regarding accessibility of abortions for women, as well as a shortage of abortionists. The ethical and…show more content… Here in Canada, women can abort at any period within their pregnancy. However, they leave behind a moral issue of when it is unethical to have an abortion, as anti-abortionists say that “because Canada has no laws against abortion, women are having them right up to the point of delivery”. But “hardly any abortions occur after 22 weeks gestation, and none on healthy fetuses or women. The natural limiting factors for late abortions are very low need” (Arthur, 2009:4). This means that typical abortions only take place when it is ethical to do…show more content… As women are legal persons and fetuses are not, judges cannot restrict any woman’s established constitutional rights in favor of hypothetical rights of fetuses under the Charter. This was addressed in Borowski v. Attorney General of Canada. Borowski argued that section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms gives a fetus an independent right to life because the word "everyone" includes the fetus, and that the 1969 abortion law therefore violated fetal rights by allowing legal abortions. The case, however, proved to be a moot point, as fetal rights were not recognized by the government of Canada or the Charter after the Morgentaler