The Big Evasion: Abortion, the Issue That Won't Go Away

Lydia Burton was an editor and writer living in Toronto, and was co-author of Editing Canadian English.

The author accumulated much of the material for this book as background to a magazine assignment concerning the opening of Dr. Morgentaler’s Toronto abortion clinic in 1983. Collins perceived that all partisan sides of the abortion “problem” were not facing up to the many issues involved in this emotionally charged subject.

Despite the fact that a jury acquitted Henry Morgentaler of wrongdoing in 1984 (the fourth jury to do so), the doctor again faced indictment in Ontario in 1985 and has been prevented, as well, from practising in Manitoba. Under the circumstances, the subtitle of Collins’s book is more than apt.

The book is perhaps too discursive in its consideration of the people and events that have brought the abortion issue into the limelight, but the substantive arguments from both pro- and anti-abortion groups and individuals help to document the range of opinions the public should know about. Considerations of legal, social, emotional, and economic aspects of abortion, together with health, psychological welfare, and ethical aspects are all surveyed. Collins also explores the role of the medical profession, the Catholic Church, zealots from both camps, and the response of the legal system to this polarizing issue. With the development of fetology as a scientific subject, new information has been added to the morass of opinion and rationale that creates more hardened moral stances among the opposing camps.

The intensity and impact of both reproductive (women’s) rights and individual (fetal) rights arguments blurs the once easily articulated positions between pro-abortion and anti-abortion. The issues are numerous and often subtle; Collins treats them with seriousness and sensitivity. She insists that the “ethical heart of the abortion issue lies not in resolving the dilemma of killing versus not killing, but in understanding responsibility for self and others” (p.249). In this undertaking, she has served everyone’s interests well by presenting the variety of argument, minutiae of information, and dilemma of choices that surround current thinking about how Canadian society will deal with abortion. This is a valuable resource for anyone who wants information and detail about this contentious subject.