Indigenous Peoples & Access to Reproductive Care

tansi ninôtemik,

In Canada, abortion is both legal and publicly funded, but abortion is not yet equally accessible, especially for Indigenous people.[1] Protecting Indigenous peoples’ access to reproductive rights and bodily autonomy is particularly important given Canada’s horrific record of forced and coerced sterilization of Indigenous women.[2] Forced and coerced sterilizations are also a live issue that continue today.[3] Part of reconciliation is creating a better future that does not replicate the colonial violence of the past, one of the paths forward includes protecting Indigenous reproductive rights.

Barriers to abortion disproportionately impact Indigenous people and the 2SLGTBQIA+ community.[4] Specific barriers include a lack of services provided in the area, travel costs, logistical difficulties, and a lack of culturally-safe care.[5] Indigenous people also face forced and coercive abortion.[6] 

Some Indigenous participants in a study on reducing barriers for Indigenous people accessing abortion offered their recommendations for improving abortion care. Some participants explained that some sort of aftercare would improve the abortion process.[7] One participant noted that compassion and therapy were needed, explaining that their experience was one where they were shamed and only given information on sex education.[8] Other participants pointed to the need for pamphlets on where and how to get abortion in every medical clinic.[9] One participant explained that she might have accidentally gone to an anti-aborition clinic meant to spread misinformation to people seeking abortion had her sister not warned her about the clinic; these clinics are often meant to appear as abortion clinics to lure people seeking an abortion inside.[10] Others explained that supports like being allowed a support person in the room during the procedure, smudging after the procedure, and access to an Elder or spiritual leader would be needed improvements to the process.[11]

With land-based medicine, Indigenous women and Two-spirit people traditionally used contraceptives and abortifacients.[12] Sexual and reproductive health, once exclusively under the administration of Indigenous people prior to European contact, became a site of colonial violence that continues to this day. What steps can the government take to improve the situation of reproductive health care for Indigenous people? How can citizens and the government alike protect reproductive freedoms in a time when progress is often undone by those who are anti-abortion?

ekosi.

The ReconciliACTION Team

Citations

[1] Renée Monchalin et al., “‘I Would Love for There Not to Be so Many Hoops … ’: Recommendations to Improve Abortion Service Access and Experiences Made by Indigenous Women and 2SLGTBQIA+ People in Canada” (October 2023) 31:1 Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters at 2, online: <www.tandfonline.com> [https://doi.org/10.1080/26410397.2023.2247667] [Monchalin]. 

[2] Maria Cheng, “Indigenous women in Canada forcibly sterilized decades after other rich countries stopped” (July 2023), online: <https://apnews.com/article/canada-indigenous-women-sterilization-apology-reparations-ebcacc0f27b8d4c12d8690718202531d>.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Monchalin, supra note 1.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid at 6.

[8] Ibid. 

[9] Ibid.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid at 7.

[12] Ibid at 2.