Right-to-know:
Abortion and Contraception Canada Website
By Isabelle Bégin

T his new, bilingual website (www.abortinfo.org and www.droitdesavoir.org) allows women faced with an unplanned pregnancy to truly benefit from the informed consent to which they are legally entitled. This includes the disclosure of all possible material risks and consequences of abortion (those leading to serious injury and death)and of contraception (non-protection against many sexually transmitted diseases that lead to infertility and cancer, high contraceptive failure rates, etc.), and the promotion of alternatives such as pregnancy and family support, adoption, and abstinence. The site features revolutionary Respect de la Vie Outaouais research concerning the complication rates published by Statistics Canada.

Women who have suffered from the material risks of abortion or contraception, such as sterility, also may benefit from the site's information regarding their legal entitlements. If the eight criteria for valid informed consent have not been met, and the woman suffers from one or more of the possible consequences of abortion and can prove it has been caused by the abortion, she is entitled to damages. In addition, "authorisation should have been obtained without undue influence or coercion." From this perspective, a woman might feel empowered to sue any person, including her partner or parents, who would have forced her into abortion, either directly or more subtly through threats of abandonment.

The site also informs women traumatized by abortion of support groups and organizations that can help them overcome the psychological consequences of abortion.

Another target audience for the site is social work and medical personnel (nurses, physicians, obstetricians, gynaecologists, and pharmacists) involved in abortion services and referral. The website offers them information about the legal requirements of informed consent, as well as information about the risks and consequences of induced abortion and contraception that have been documented through studies and statistics over the past decades.