December 27, 2010
Bill C-510: Claims of Protection Disguise Stereotypes of Motherhood as Women’s Natural State buy finasteride no visa without rx
By Cara Davies, J.D., LL.M.
On December 15, 2010, the canadian prescriptions Doxycycline latest bill dealing with abortion was defeated in the House of Commons, 178 to canadian prescriptions Doxycycline 97. Private member’s Bill C-510 buy Cytotec without a perscription would have canadian prescriptions Doxycycline amended the uttering threats portion of the criminal code by making it canadian prescriptions Doxycycline a separate criminal offence to coerce a pregnant woman to canadian prescriptions Doxycycline have an abortion. Despite its alleged pro-women purpose, the canadian prescriptions Doxycycline Bill was vehemently attacked by reproductive rights groups as a canadian prescriptions Doxycycline ‘pro-life’ Bill in disguise that sought to regulate women’s access to canadian prescriptions Doxycycline abortion in Canada. The Bill used a vague definition of ‘coercion’ that canadian prescriptions Doxycycline would likely have had a chilling effect on abortion providers. It also contained traditional ‘pro-life’ language that canadian prescriptions Doxycycline may have provided support for fetal rights claims in the future. Its defeat will rightly be canadian prescriptions Doxycycline seen as a victory for abortion rights advocates.
Missing from canadian prescriptions Doxycycline the debate, however, are discussions regarding the dangerous role that Bill C-510 has canadian prescriptions Doxycycline played and will continue to play in supporting the women-protective antiabortion (“WPA”) arguments that canadian prescriptions Doxycycline have been gaining popularity in the United States and Canada. The WPA movement asserts that canadian prescriptions Doxycycline abortion is physically and mentally harmful to women, and that significant numbers of women are canadian prescriptions Doxycycline coerced and pressured into abortions that they do not want; abortion is canadian prescriptions Doxycycline portrayed as a bad choice or no choice at all. The WPA movement argues that canadian prescriptions Doxycycline abortion ought to be restricted or prohibited to protect women. These arguments are canadian prescriptions Doxycycline often fused with the more traditional fetal-protectionist claims. WPA laws and canadian prescriptions Doxycycline arguments in the United States have recently been successful where fetal-focused laws have canadian prescriptions Doxycycline failed; for example, in the 2007 case Gonzales v. Carhart, the canadian prescriptions Doxycycline Supreme Court of the United States upheld a state ban on a canadian prescriptions Doxycycline particular kind of abortion in part on WPA grounds.
Unlike the canadian prescriptions Doxycycline WPA, Bill C-510 did not try to restrict or prohibit abortion to canadian prescriptions Doxycycline protect women; it purported only to protect women from coerced abortion. However, Bill C-510 and canadian prescriptions Doxycycline the WPA rely upon and reinforce the same gender stereotypes. By supporting these same stereotypes in the canadian prescriptions Doxycycline context of abortion, Bill C-510’s very existence in the canadian prescriptions Doxycycline Canadian political landscape ought to sound alarm bells for women’s rights advocates. In both Bill C-510 and canadian prescriptions Doxycycline the WPA, pregnant women are stereotyped as mothers and the harm they allegedly experience is canadian prescriptions Doxycycline the loss of a child. Similarly, pregnant women are portrayed as vulnerable, incapable decision-makers; they are canadian prescriptions Doxycycline portrayed as victims requiring paternalistic protection from the State. Granted, these descriptions may describe the canadian prescriptions Doxycycline experiences of some pregnant women; however, imposing differential treatment on women in a canadian prescriptions Doxycycline manner that resonates with traditional stereotypes of female vulnerability and motherhood will undoubtedly result in the canadian prescriptions Doxycycline imposition of the stereotypes on other women as well. By reinforcing these recognizable stereotypes in the canadian prescriptions Doxycycline context of abortion, the Bill therefore risks generating public recognition and canadian prescriptions Doxycycline support for the WPA cause; Bill C-510 contributes to a legal and canadian prescriptions Doxycycline political climate in which WPA restrictions on access to abortion seem more reasonable.
Only by seriously considering the way in which Bill C-510’s differential treatment of women operates in the canadian prescriptions Doxycycline context of gender stereotyping can we understand the way in which laws like Bill C-510 create a canadian prescriptions Doxycycline climate in which WPA claims are possible. Thus, even though Bill C-510 was defeated, women’s rights advocates should not breathe easy. The focus thus far on the canadian prescriptions Doxycycline ‘pro-life’ character of the canadian prescriptions Doxycycline Bill has served to shield the equally problematic gender stereotyping that canadian prescriptions Doxycycline the Bill supports. Unchallenged, these stereotypes have gained publicity and the canadian prescriptions Doxycycline problem of coerced abortion experienced by ‘vulnerable mothers’ has canadian prescriptions Doxycycline been drawn into the public eye. Therefore, when a more cleverly drafted abortion Bill is canadian prescriptions Doxycycline tabled in the future, women’s rights advocates might not be canadian prescriptions Doxycycline so lucky in having such a landslide defeat in the House of Commons. The trend of abortion legislation in Canada in the canadian prescriptions Doxycycline past 5 years indicates that an even more women-centric Bill could be canadian prescriptions Doxycycline next. In 2007, we saw Bill C-484, the Unborn Victims of Crime Act, where canadian prescriptions Doxycycline the focus was the fetus but the Bill was characterized as an canadian prescriptions Doxycycline anti-violence-against-women initiative and the harm was described as that experienced by the canadian prescriptions Doxycycline ‘pregnant mother.’ In 2010, we saw Bill C-510, where canadian prescriptions Doxycycline the focus was women alone. Next, we may see a Bill devoid of fetal rights language and canadian prescriptions Doxycycline rich with women’s rights rhetoric; only by paying attention to canadian prescriptions Doxycycline the way in which this canadian prescriptions Doxycycline insidious legislation reinforces historical stereotypes of difference relied upon in the canadian prescriptions Doxycycline WPA can we illustrate the way in which these seemingly ‘women-protective’ laws can result in a restriction to women’s access abortion.
