Week 14

Question 1

What is Reproductive Justice?

Answer 1

The complete physical, mental, spiritual, political, social, and economic well-being of women and girls, based on the full achievements and protection of Womens human rights

Question 2

Three aspects of Reproductive Justice (Loretta Ross)

Answer 2

1.The right to have a child
2.The right not to have a child
3.The right to parent the children one has, as well as to control our birthing options, such as midwifery.

Question 3

The right to have a child includes…

Answer 3

-The right to sufficient economic resources to parent that child
-The right to education and training in preparation to earn a living wage
-The right to decide whether or not to be a parent to the child that one gives birth to
-The right to parent in physically and environmentally safe context
-The right to leave work to care for newborns and dependents in need
-The right to affordable, high quality childcare

Question 4

1928 Alberta Sexual Sterilization act

Answer 4

-Based on racial & genetic profiling; Drafted to “preserve the gene pool” because it was thought that many “undesirable” traits were transmutable genetically.
-Categories included anyone with: mental illness, epilepsy, alcoholism, pauperism; certain criminal &/or social undesirable behaviours like prostitution, sexual deviancy or perversion; physical or cognitive disabilities; Indigenous persons & persons of colour.
-Repealed in 1972

Question 5

Coerced Sterilization

Answer 5

-Practice of sterilizing women without their proper or fully informed consent
-Requiring consent when in a state where full consent cannot be given; not informing the person fully of the procedure, consequences, or effects of a procedure being consented to.
-In Canada this has happened & continues to happen to Indigenous women
-In the USA you have organizations like Project Prevention

Question 6

Cultural Assimilation & Racism

Answer 6

-Child Welfare Practices: Targeting non-white families more frequently; Separating children from their culture
-Toronto CAS Official Report: “There is an acknowledged disproportionality, disparity and discrimination in services provided to Black families by child welfare agencies across North America.
-Black children: 8.5% of TO’s child population; 31% of children in TO’s foster care system.
-Residential Schools

Question 7

Angela Davis/ The Social Construction of Mother hood- What is a mother?

Answer 7

-The ideological imprisonment of white and middle-class women
-Commodification of black mothers’ bodies- had to produce more slaves; children considered property of the master
-Women who were enslaved nurtured, reared & nursed the babies of their white owners
-Surrogate Motherhood
-Teen mothers

Question 8

History of Abortion in Canada 1869

Answer 8

advertisement and distribution of contraception, and the provision and procurement of abortion, prohibited under the Criminal Code of Canada

Question 9

History of Abortion in Canada Between 1926-1947

Answer 9

approximately 4,000 to 6,000 Canadian women died from illegal abortions

Question 10

History of Abortion in Canada 1969

Answer 10

it became legal to advertise and distribute contraception, and made abortion legal under limited circumstances
-Dr. Henry Morgentaler began openly performing illegal abortions in Quebec

Question 11

History of Abortion in Canada 1988

Answer 11

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled, in the case R v Morgentaler, that women have the right to choose whether or not to continue with a pregnancy

Question 12

History of Abortion in Canada 1995

Answer 12

abortion deemed a medically necessary procedure in the Canada Health Act