New Canadian legislation demands more transparency from anti-abortion charities
The federal government has introduced legislation that, if passed, would require registered charities providing pregnancy counselling to explicitly state if they do not provide abortions, birth control, or referrals to these services.
Organizations that do not clearly and prominently provide the required transparency could lose their charitable status.
According to the Abortion Rights Coalition, Canada is home to about 157 anti-choice crisis pregnancy centres. More than 90 per cent are operated by registered charities.
Abortion is legal in Canada, but many women and pregnant people face barriers such as a lack of local providers, travel costs, an absence of culturally responsive care and misinformation that may prevent them from booking timely healthcare appointments.
Canadian doctors can also refuse to provide reproductive healthcare on religious grounds. Only Ontario and Nova Scotia require doctors to provide referrals for services they refuse to provide themselves.
Eight provinces have also brought in legislation to prevent anti-abortion activists from gathering outside healthcare facilities, citing protesters as yet another barrier to reproductive health services.
The federal Liberals pledged to strip anti-abortion organizations of their charitable status during their last election campaign but have not made good on their promise, which some experts described as opening “a legal can of worms.”
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