About the concern that a male US conservative (
@Hotrod2 ) voiced that religious anti-choice people in Canada are forced to pay for abortions, unto calling it a freedom that he says is suppressed. (don't ask, I don't understand either). I figured I'd check to see how Canadians poll on abortion rights.
It's not a right enshrined in law. Abortion has been legal in Canada since 1988, when the Supreme Court decided in R. v. Morgentaler that a law that criminalized abortion was unconstitutional. After the ruling, one measure with a comparatively minor restriction didn't make it into law. No government has since attempted to legislate on the issue.
So, what did Canadians answer in a recent poll on the matter:
a new (2022) Ipsos poll in Canada shows that Canadians are becoming even firmer in their belief that women have the right to access abortion services at their own choosing.
A majority of Canadians (56%) now believe that abortion should be permitted whenever a woman decides she wants one, up 13 points from Ipsos polling conducted in 2010. Conversely, just 11% now believe that abortion should not be permitted under any circumstances except when the life of the mother is in danger, down 10 points. Resting somewhere in the middle, one in three (33%) believe that abortion should be permitted in certain circumstances, up 2 points since 2010.
So, only 11% of Canadians actively want an abortion ban.
Given such strong support for abortion rights, does Canada want to protect that right?
Ah, no. despite more than 80% of Canadians think the choice should be right. most Canadians don't want to talk about it. (insert trope about Canadians avoiding confrontation here)
Just one in four (25%) Canadians want to reopen the issue of abortion for debate in Canada (down 9 points from 2010 when there was speculation that the Conservative government might do so), while most (61%) Canadians say we should just leave things the way they are (up 15 points). The remaining 14% of Canadian say they don’t care one way or the other (down 3 points).
There is an issue with access in some areas but in general if a woman feels they should get an abortion, its there for them.
So, yet again, we see a US male conservative (
@hotrod) crying about a suppressed right when in fact he is the one who wants to suppress people's rights. (don't ask, I don't understand either).