Court Battles Put Issue at the Top of National Agenda : Both Sides Step Up Drive for Canadian Abortion Law

It was one of the most intimate decisions a woman could make--to end a romance that had gone sour and with it, the pregnancy that had resulted.

But when Chantal Daigle’s ex-fiance went to court last month to prevent her from aborting the fetus they had conceived together, the 21-year-old secretary’s private life suddenly became Canada’s biggest news story and an issue important enough to bring that nation’s Supreme Court back from vacation for an emergency session.

This case and two others like it this summer have suddenly put the abortion issue at the top of the national agenda in a country that has operated for more than a year and a half with no abortion law.

“We demand a totally pro-life law, with no exceptions whatsoever,” Margaret Purcell, vice president of the anti-abortion Campaign Life Coalition, said Wednesday.

Daigle, who had lost her battles in two courts in Quebec, did not wait to hear the outcome of the Supreme Court proceeding Tuesday. Even as the justices were hearing arguments, her lawyer startled the courtroom with the announcement that she had gone ahead and had the abortion.

The Supreme Court later voted unanimously to lift a lower court injunction that had stood in her way. It did not make public the reasoning behind its decision and may not do so for several months, which leaves the legalities of fathers’ rights in some question.

In at least half a dozen other countries, including the United States, men have fought with virtually no success to have a legal say in determining whether to abort a fetus they helped conceive, according to Rebecca Cook, an international law professor at the University of Toronto.

“She just killed my child,” Daigle’s former fiance, Jean-Guy Tremblay, 25, told reporters.

On the courthouse steps, abortion opponents had held a mock baby shower and filled a playpen with toys and other presents for “Baby Daigle-Tremblay.” Some of the 350 demonstrators wept when they heard the news of Daigle’s abortion, which occurred more than 20 weeks into her pregnancy.

Despite this setback, anti-abortion forces vowed Wednesday that they will keep the pressure on Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and his Conservative Party government to fill a legal void that has existed since January, 1988. At that time, the Supreme Court threw out a law allowing abortion only when it was deemed medically necessary by hospital committees.

The court ruled that the approval procedure was too cumbersome and arbitrary. However, it did not suggest that women have an unconditional access to abortion, and it left open the question of whether a fetus has rights.

That decision left Canada as the only nation in the industrialized world without an abortion law. It also put new fervor into abortion opponents and gave them what many believe is political momentum.

Stymied on Statute

The government vowed to move swiftly to pass a new statute, but when the House of Commons considered five proposals last July, none could get enough votes to be adopted.

The one that by far received the most support, defeated by only 13 votes, was the most restrictive. It would have allowed abortion only when two or more doctors certify that it is necessary to save the woman’s life.

“They have left Canada in this state of lawlessness,” Purcell said. “Quite frankly, (some politicians) don’t have the moral fiber or the character or the integrity to face up to the issue.”

Amid this summer’s furor over abortion, Mulroney has promised to introduce legislation in the fall. But with the government still deeply divided over the issue, there is no indication that the effort will fare any better than the one last year.

“We have in front of us what we had behind us--a long, hard struggle,” Purcell said.

Pro-choice groups would prefer to leave things as they are, with abortion “a private matter, between a woman and her doctor,” said Robin Rowe, national coordinator of the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League.

Rowe said the three fathers’ rights cases in Canada this summer were inspired, in part, by a U.S. Supreme Court decision a month ago, which began what many predict will be an erosion of abortion rights in the United States.

Daigle’s is the only case among the three to get as far as the Canada’s Supreme Court.

Barbara Dodd, 22, persuaded the Supreme Court of Ontario to lift an injunction obtained by her boyfriend, Gregory Murphy, 23. Among his reasons for opposing the abortion, he said, was the fact that a geneticist had advised him “that any children I might father are likely to be gifted.”

Although Dodd prevailed, the court proceedings made public details of the woman’s sexual history and the fact that she had two previous abortions--something even her family did not know, her father said.

The case had a final twist after Dodd got the abortion, when she reconciled with Murphy and announced that she regretted having ended her pregnancy.

“I do not think that women should accept abortion,” she told Mclean’s magazine. “Especially, a woman should not decide without the father.”

Even as Dodd and Murphy were fighting their case, Steven Diamond, 27, of Winnipeg was turned down in his application for an injunction to prevent his 20-year-old girlfriend from having an abortion.

Daigle was on her way to Sherbrooke, Quebec, for her July 10 scheduled abortion when she learned that Tremblay had gotten a court to block it.

Although the two had planned to be married last month, their relationship had been stormy. After she became pregnant, Tremblay became violent, Daigle said in court filings. She claimed that he grabbed her by the throat during an argument and once threw her to the floor.

The case captured the attention of the nation. When a Quebec appeals court voted 3-2 to uphold the injunction against the abortion, 10,000 pro-choice demonstrators protested in Montreal.