In the absence of tangible policy changes, the Liberal Party of Canada’s most recent pro-choice PR campaign is meaningless.
In April, a video featuring Justin Trudeau debating a young anti-choice Canadian went viral on TikTok.
On May 10, Trudeau ed a video on Twitter where he claimed he would continue to advocate for the right of “women across the country” to choose. In the flurry of tweets that followed, other Liberal MPs published similar messages making their pro-choice sentiments known.
I’m radically pro-choice. I encourage all politicians to affirm the right to abortion care.
As a person familiar with the dismal state of abortion access in Canada, the Liberal’s response is nothing but a cheap attempt to attract voters’ attention without implementing positive change.
The Liberals have long advocated for the privacy and bodily autonomy of Canadian citizens.
In 1967, Pierre Trudeau famously proclaimed, “there’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation” when the Canadian government was revising laws that criminalized homosexuality.
The senior Trudeau was among the first politicians who advocated abortion care be accessible to Canadians in the event a pregnancy threatened the life of the pregnant person.
Today, abortion care falls under the scope of the Canada Health Act, which mandates all healthcare services be accessible to people in Canada.
Despite this supposed guarantee, there aren’t sufficient resources that aid pregnant people in accessing abortion care, nor are there adequate s to allow Canadians to take their reproductive health into their own hands.
Nationally, abortion clinics are sparsely located—people in remote locations looking to terminate pregnancies must travel great distances to access care in urban areas.
Crisis pregnancy centres outnumber abortion clinics nationwide. These organizations retain status as charitable organizations from the federal government, despite actively employing fear tactics to prevent people from accessing abortion care.
Provincial healthcare systems across the country are in a state of collapse. In Ontario, patients face months-long waits to meet primary care physicians for contraceptive care.
This isn’t the first time Justin Trudeau has pledged to defend abortion in Canada. During the 2021 federal election, Trudeau promised to improve access to abortion care. The following summer when Roe v. Wade was overturned by the US Supreme Court, he made a similar pledge to defend abortion rights.
Without previous changes to refer to, this “new promise” seems like it’s nothing more than a part of the party’s regularly scheduled programming.
Claiming for abortion rights is the bare minimum for Liberal MPs.
For the Liberals’ endorsement of good access to abortion care to be meaningful, their efforts need to extend beyond mere affirmations of existing liberal principles which include bodily autonomy and privacy rights.
Extensive policies are needed to ensure access is sufficiently provided to Canadians. Until this happens, the Liberal Party is doing nothing but masquerading behind cheap PR stunts.
Cassidy is an MA candidate in the Philosophy department and one of The Journal’s Editors in Chief.
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Itís nearly impossible to find well-informed people for this topic, but you seem like you know what youíre talking about! Thanks