In Defence of Reason: Religion, Science, and the Prince Edward Island Anti-Abortion Movement, 1969–1988

Abstract

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the Prince Edward Island Right to Life Association (RTLA) lobbied medical professionals, hospital boards, politicians, and neighbours to prevent the Charlottetown and Summerside hospital corporations, the only abortion providers on the Island, to eliminate their Therapeutic Abortion Committees. Because abortion committees were not mandatory and only hospital boards were responsible for establishing committees at accredited hospitals, the RTLA elected pro-life members to the boards and voted against abortion committee bylaws to establish barriers to abortion access. By holding key positions within the hospital corporations, pro-life activists ensured that abortion provisions were no longer legally or medically permissible in Island hospitals. This article draws on RTLA and government records, newspaper articles, as well as interviews with pro-life activists, to highlight the avenues through which the organization created a prominent social movement. By contesting the scientific reasoning for abortion, the RTLA quickly became a countermovement not only to the pro-choice movement, but also to the mainstream medical community.