In 1869 abortion was completely banned in Canada. Nevertheless, illegal abortion flourished which saw the death of many young women. One example was the abortion trial of Emily Stowe in 1879.
The case began after Sarah Ann Lovell, an unmarried teenager was found dead in August 1879. It was discovered that after her death, she had been pregnant and had been a patient of Dr. Stowe, one of Canada's first female doctors. Stowe claimed that she had first resisted performing an abortion butt Lovell seemed emotionally distressed and threatened suicide which led Stowe to prescribe medication intended as a placebo. It was later discovered that the drug was not the cause of death.
The trial was intended to discourage abortion in a widely publicized trial.
Stowe pleaded not guilty in an Ontario County Court. The coroner was called in to testify and confessed he had lost all medical evidence. Another doctor was accused of being antagonistic to Stowe because she was a woman doctor, and of calling her a "bitch." Another such case Azoulay vs The Queen, reached the supreme Court in 1952. In both cases the alleged abortion provider was acquitted of responsibility for the woman's death.
The movement to liberalize Canada's abortion laws began in the 1960s. Abortion could be legally performed only to save the life of the mother. The pregnant daughters of the rich were sent to reliable physicians who did abortions for cash. An estimate at the time show that these physicians would do twenty to thirty abortions a week. Women who were not rich were left to perform an abortion on themselves or seek an illegal abortionist.
Back ally abortions continued. The method for aborting was pumping Lysol into the woman's womb. There was a high mortality rate among young women as a result of these amateur abortions..
The partial easing of abortion rules began after a 34-year old woman, Lottie Leanne Clarke, a mother of three, who died of a massive infection in 1964 after an illegal abortion in spite of medical treatment and antibiotics. At the inquest into her death the jury recommended that the laws about therapeutic abortion be revised.
In a March 2010poll, a majority of Canadians (52%) described themselves as pro choice while over one in four (27%) described themselves as prolife. (10%) described themselves as neither pro choice nor pro life, and 11% did not respond.
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