Document Type

Article

Disciplines

International Law

Abstract

Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.), Canada derives much of its beauty and special qualities from its Island-geography that limits accessibility to the mainland. P.E.I. is one of Canada's Maritime Provinces and is located to the north and west of Canada's mainland provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, respectively. Separated from the mainland by the Northumberland Strait, individuals may only access P.E.I. by air, ferry, or the 12.9- kilometer-long Confederation Bridge that connects it to New Brunswick.3 As an island with limited accessibility, P.E.I. has remained somewhat free of rapid industrialization, environmental degradation, and human destruction. But the remoteness of P.E.I. that contributes to these benefits has also enabled certain social issues to avoid nationwide scrutiny, including women's access to abortion services.

Although legal in Canada, P.E.I. did not provide on-Island surgical abortions from 1982 until 2017.' After almost thirty-five years of abortion rights' advocates fighting for on-Island abortion access and a notice of a pending lawsuit, the P.E.I. government announced in 2016 that P.E.I. would provide on-Island abortion services, including medical and surgical abortions. 5 The fight for on-Island abortion services is indicative of the many barriers that women face in accessing safe abortions, even when abortion is legal.

This note will discuss abortion law in Canada. More specifically, this note will look at the barriers to access an abortion in Canada. In doing so, this note will examine how geographic location, race, and socioeconomic class all influence access to abortion services. Part I provided a short description of P.E.I. and its fight for on-Island abortion services. Part II will provide an overview of abortion law in Canada after 1988. Part III will discuss the barriers to abortion access in Canada, specifically looking at systematic and structural, location, and socioeconomic class barriers. Part IV will discuss how Critical Race Theory (CRT), and an application of personal narrative, a CRT tool of legal analysis, can evaluate and improve access to abortion services for Indigenous women in Canada. This note will argue that an application of personal narrative can correctly evaluate and improve access to abortion services for Indigenous women in Canada.

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