The Politics Of Abortion In The United States And Canada

A cross-cultural analysis of the abortion issue in the United States and Canada. The book focuses on: the judicial, legislative and executive branches; public opinion and interest groups; federal agencies; and the roles of subnational authorities and the health care sectors.

Abortion Politics: Public Policy in Cross Cultural Perspective focuses on current abortion policy and practice in the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan and aims to provide a comprehensive, stimulating and balanced picture of current abortion policy in a cross-cultural perspective. The contributors deal with comparative abortion policy including recent developments in Ireland, Germany and Eastern Europe.

When Henry Morgentaler, Canada’s best-known abortion rights advocate, died in 2013, activists and scholars began to reassess the state of abortion in the country. In this volume, some of Canada’s foremost researchers challenge current thinking about abortion by revealing the discrepancy between what Canadians believe the law to be after the 1988 Morgentaler decision and what people are experiencing on the ground. Showcasing new theoretical frameworks and approaches from law, history, medicine, women’s studies, and political science, these timely essays reveal the diversity of abortion experiences across the country, past and present, and make a case for shifting the debate from abortion rights to reproductive justice.

Critically examines the politics of abortion in Canada leading up to and after the historic Morgentaler decision.

Since Roe v. Wade, abortion has continued to be a divisive political issue in the United States. In contrast, it has remained primarily a medical issue in Britain and Canada despite the countries’ shared heritage. Doctors and Demonstrators looks beyond simplistic cultural or religious explanations to find out why abortion politics and policies differ so dramatically in these otherwise similar countries. Drew Halfmann argues that political institutions are the key. In the United States, federalism, judicial review, and a private health care system contributed to the public definition of abortion as an individual right rather than a medical necessity. Meanwhile, Halfmann explains, the porous structure of American political parties gave pro-choice and pro-life groups the opportunity to move the issue onto the political agenda. A groundbreaking study of the complex legal and political factors behind the evolution of abortion policy, Doctors and Demonstrators will be vital for anyone trying to understand this contentious issue.

This edited collection examines various aspects of the explosive abortion issue in the United States and Canada. In both countries, decisions of the national supreme court have made access to legal abortion easier than had previously been the case. This volume looks at the aftermath of Roe v. Wade in the U.S. and Morgantaler v. Regina in Canada. Individual chapters deal with the rhetoric of public discourse, public opinion at the mass level, political reasoning on the part of religious and pro-life activists, and the role of religion in political socialization on the abortion issue. Methodologically, the volume includes survey research, content analysis, participant observation, and political theory. The list of contributors includes some of the leading political scientists and sociologists working in the field.

The landmark decision R. v. Morgentaler (1988) struck down Canada’s abortion law and is widely believed to have established a right to abortion, but its actual impact is much less decisive. In After Morgentaler, Rachael Johnstone examines the state of abortion access in Canada today and argues that substantive access is essential to full citizenship for women. Using case studies, Johnstone assesses the role of both state and non-state actors in shaping access. This book affirms the need to recognize abortion as an issue fundamentally tied to women’s equality, while stressing the utility of rights claims to improve access.