Abortion Rights Coalition Of Canada:

The Abortion Rights Coalition Of Canada claims to be the only nation-wide political pro-choice group in Canada devoted to ensuring abortion rights and access for women. It was formed in October 2005 to carry out political and educational work to support reproductive rights and health.

Their Mission:

"To ensure women's reproductive freedom by protecting and advancing access to abortion and quality reproductive health care."

Their Vision

The ARCC is "pro-choice" and affirms the following:

• "To achieve equality, all women must have the right to decide for themselves whether and when they will bear children, and how many. Without control of their fertility, women cannot have autonomy over their lives and cannot play a full and equal role in society."
• "Women have a constitutionally-based right to unrestricted, fully-funded abortion, without legal or other barriers or discrimination due to gender, class, ethnicity, race, age, location/region (or area of residence), or any other characteristic, including reasons for choosing an abortion. The rights of pregnant women must not be abridged—a pregnant woman is “one person” under the constitution."
• "Women have the right to receive a full range of reproductive healthcare options, services, and information, including (but not limited to) medical and surgical abortion, contraception, family planning services, and comprehensive sexual health education."
• "Women have the right to access reproductive healthcare services safely and in a timely manner, in an atmosphere of dignity, privacy, respect, trust, and compassion."
• "All abortions are medically required—not “elective”—and fall under the protection of the Canada Health Act (just like all childbirths). The delivery and funding of abortion and other medically required reproductive healthcare services must meet the Act’s five principles."
• "Providers of reproductive health care services have the right to deliver such services free of discrimination, harassment, and violence."

The ARCC's main goals are to:

• "protect and improve access to reproductive health services, especially abortion"
• "prevent and work against any reduction of reproductive health services or infringement of reproductive rights"
• "support abortion providers and clinics, including training of new providers"
• "support pro-choice communities and activism, especially involving youth and students"
• "counter anti-choice interference and misinformation"
• "advocate and lobby for reproductive choice and services, and educate the public"
• "network and collaborate with other organizations to further the ARCC's vision and mandate"

Issues of Concern:

An issue of concern the Abortion Rights Coalition Of Canada is currently addressing was reported in the LifeSiteNews.com by Hilary White, in August 2008, where the Canadian government's Unborn Victims of Crime Bill, C-484, "which would make it a separate crime to injure or kill a foetus during an attack on the mother, passed second reading in the House of Commons in March. In May, pro-abortion Liberal MP Brent St. Denis introduced C-543 as an alternative, saying the government bill would result in the law identifying an unborn child as a person with rights. C-543 would amend the criminal code to allow for the possibility of harsher penalties for those who attack "a person who he or she knew, or ought to have known, was pregnant.

"Joyce Arthur, one of Canada's foremost abortion activists, issued a media release on Monday on behalf of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, saying that the counter-bill, C-543, is the preferred choice of abortion advocates who want to maintain the status quo.

"Arthur wrote, 'The only reason to prefer Bill C-484 is to recognize the fetus itself as a victim, but this makes the fetus a separate legal person, in direct conflict with the rights of the pregnant woman.'"

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