Canada Has No Law Restricting Late-Term Abortion
Canada is the only country in the world with no abortion law. The typical Western European country allows abortion on request for any reason up to 12 weeks of gestation and restricts abortion later in the pregnancy. In Canada, abortion is legal for any reason at any gestational age, even right up until birth. Canada is way out of line with other countries when it comes to protecting pre-born human rights.
Western European countries are culturally and politically similar to Canada, and they all recognize the need to protect the interests of pre-born children at some point. Canada is extreme in comparison, with no legal restrictions on abortion whatsoever.
What counts as late-term abortion?
There is no universally agreed-upon definition of what counts as a late-term abortion. Abortions performed past the first trimester, or 13 weeks of gestation, are sometimes considered late-term abortions. Most abortions in Canada are performed in the first 13 weeks. Alternatively, the cut-off for late-term abortions may be defined as past 20 weeks of gestation, that is, in the second half of a pregnancy. This is the definition used by the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada. Another definition views any abortion past viability as a late-term abortion. Viability is usually set at about 23 weeks of gestation, when a majority of pre-born children can survive outside of the womb. Finally, late-term abortion can be defined as abortion performed in the last trimester of a pregnancy (after 27 weeks).
Because one of the most common definitions of late-term abortion is over 20 weeks of gestation and because of the way abortion data is collected, we will define late-term abortions as those occurring after 20 weeks’ gestation.
Late-term abortions happen in Canada
Most publicly available data on abortion is compiled by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). From 2007-2020, CIHI published the gestational age of abortions performed in Canadian hospitals (except Quebec). An average of 600 abortions past 20 weeks were performed each year. That equates to 5.7% of all hospital-based abortions (outside Quebec) for which the gestational age is known. That is the minimum number of late abortions performed each year, a figure that could be significantly higher if we had better abortion data. Our best estimate is that there were 1,386 late-term abortions in 2020.
CIHI stopped reporting the gestational age of abortions in 2021. However, the reported number of late-term abortions remained very steady in the fourteen years prior (2007-2020). Around 1,300 late-term abortions likely continue to occur every year in Canada.
Canadians want restrictions on late-term abortions
Approximately half of Canadians think that late-term abortions should be illegal. Three polls since 2020 have asked Canadians about their attitudes towards late-term abortion. A 2020 Angus Reid poll found that 49% of Canadians think that Canada “should have a law restricting abortion in the third trimester unless the mother is at risk.” A 2020 DART poll found that 43% of Canadians believe that abortion should be generally illegal in the second trimester. That number jumps to 70% when it comes to the third trimester. And a 2023 Ipsos poll shows that, while most Canadians support legal abortion in the early stages of pregnancy, support declines the older a pre-born child is. At 20 weeks of pregnancy, more Canadians (36%) think abortion should not be legal for any woman than Canadians who think it should be legal (34%). This suggests that most Canadians oppose abortions in the second half of pregnancy.
We need a law restricting late-term abortions
It’s time Canada started regulating late-term abortion. We are advocating for a law that would ban late-term abortions past 20 weeks’ gestation. The sole exception to this ban would be to save the life of the mother. Such a law would prevent approximately 1,300 late-term abortions.
For more information on why We Need a Law supports regulating late-term abortions as opposed to a full ban on abortion, please read our paper on why direction matters, explaining why starting with protecting some is better than protecting none.
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