While the Supreme Court of the United States is considering removing a decision that guarantees the right to abortion at the federal level, in Canada and Mexico, organizations are preparing to welcome American patients for abortions.
Abortion has been legal in Canada since 1988, when the country’s highest court struck down a law that criminalized it. “Every woman in Canada has the right to a safe and legal abortion,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted last week in response to the Politico newspaper’s revelations about the US Supreme Court plan.
Karina Gould, the Canadian Minister of Family and Social Development, also indicated that American women would be authorized to come to Canada for abortions, as is already the case. However, she was concerned about the consequences that this quashing of the Roe v. Wade could also have on the Canadians. “There are a lot of Canadian women who may not live near a big city in Canada, but who often have access to these services in the United States,” she told local press.
Indeed, access to abortion remains unequal in Canada, and is much more developed in large cities. Some women who live in rural areas close to the American border found it easier to travel to the United States for an abortion than to a large Canadian city.
Abortion in danger in half of the American states
Traveling to Canada for Americans, however, incurs significant costs. In particular, they must pay 500 Canadian dollars (about 380 US dollars), according to The Guardian, to have access to a surgical abortion, not to mention the cost of transport.
According to the projections of several organizations defending the right to abortion, 28 American states could eliminate or restrict this right if the Roe v. Wade is canceled, especially those in the southern United States. American women who live for example in Texas, where abortion is already very limited and could be prohibited, would have the possibility of going to Mexico to have an abortion.
Vero Cruz, coordinator of Las Libres, an association that campaigns for access to abortion in Mexico, told the Guardian that hospitals in border towns were preparing for an influx of American women. “Women crossing Mexico come to Monterrey, Tijuana and other cities to have abortions using medication,” she explained.
However, abortion is only practiced in certain Mexican states, and this remains very new legislation. It was not until September 2021 that the country’s Supreme Court decided to decriminalize abortion. Until then, women who terminated their pregnancies faced up to three years in prison.