The Struggle for Choice: Part 1 - Abortion Caravan

Directed by Nancy Nicol

The five-part series Struggle For Choice examines a 17 year period of the abortion rights movement from the liberalization of the abortion law between 1969 and 1987. The tapes present the abortion rights issue in an overall political context. Part One, Abortion Caravan examines the Federal law changes in 1969, which allowed for the legal dissemination of birth control information and the legalization of abortion if performed in an accredited hospital and approved by a therapeutic abortion committee of three doctors (it was not removed from the Criminal Code, making abortion illegal if performed in free-standing clinics or without the approval of a committee.) Women responded to the limitations of the new law with demonstrations. Participants in Abortion Caravan "declare war on the Government of Canada" and shut down Parliament for the first time in Canada's history