The US' abortion election is a wake up call for campus feminists

As access to abortion stands threatened in the wake of a Trump victory, low support and limited sexual education among young people should be our dominating concerns

Tuesday’s US election was fought over many issues, and access to abortion was at the top of many of our minds. Donald Trump's record of bragging about his role in overturning Roe v Wade, made him a difficult pill to swallow for abortion motivated voters. Vice-president Harris attempted to use this to create contrast between her candidacy — one promising to support reproductive rights — and the former president's.

This election was not just an American fascination, Canadians were also paying attention. As this attention continues to spill across the border, what might a feminist response look like? What could we do with this opportunity?

In the wake of Roe’s overturning, Canadian women shared America’s concern over reproductive rights. 62 per cent of women in one survey said they were concerned about the status of reproductive rights in Canada.

The month Roe was overturned saw the highest ever searches for “is abortion legal in Canada” over Google's 10 years of tracking data. The question has sustained interest since then, picking up by a high of nine per cent since Kamala Harris became the Democratic candidate.

What should feminists do with this heightened attention, even if Canada’s conservative party's official policy is to not support any regulation on abortion?

The answer might lie with respect to McMaster students, our friends, coworkers and peers; those in the age demographic in Canada, 18-34, least likely to support a woman’s right to choose. Contrary to what many young people might think, we are according to one poll 13 per cent less likely to support abortion than Canadians aged 55 and above.

Why is support for abortion dwindling amongst younger voters? One possible explanation could be a lack of comprehensive abortion knowledge. According to one Ipsos poll, only 56 percent of Canadian women age 16-50 feel they know enough about their options for safely terminating a pregnancy.

More likely, I believe, is the resurgence of the pro-life movement. As this movement has increasingly appealed to emotions for its own patriarchal agenda, it has complicated abortion discourse with debates over fetal-personhood, or abortion’s possible effects on those receiving them.

In the US, anti-abortion victories spearheaded by the republican party have turned abortion into a partisan issue. But this partisanship risks the core of the feminist movement. 

By fighting for abortion rights without connecting it explicitly to a broader fight against the patriarchal agenda that fuels anti-abortion politics, the feminist movement risks it’s radical core for sloganeering intended not to be off putting to non-feminists. To quote Vice-president Harris, “One does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to simply agree the government should not be telling her what to do with her body."

The dire situation America now faces following Trump's election victory is not yet the case in Canada and student activists should be part of ensuring this remains the case.

How then should student activists, facing a belligerent patriarchal movement, decreasing support among young people for abortion and limited knowledge on sexual health, help to build a robust feminist movement? The answer may in fact rest with past generations of student activists, the same students who are now in the older generation supporting abortion at much higher rates.

In 1968, the McGill Students’ Society published the Birth Control Handbook, breaking Canadian law by disseminating crucial information to students about reproductive health, contraception and abortion.

This was not a politically neutral how-to on safe sex. The handbook’s editorial commentary explicitly drew the connection between contraception and women’s liberation. It also drew the important distinction between safe sex and safe relationships arguing that contraception was ineffective without a real negotiation of healthy sexual relationships.

By drawing these connections explicitly, the feminist activists behind the handbook ensured that abortion, safe sex and contraception remained the feminist political issues that they are. This mirrored and helped enforce the broader feminist movement at the time, whose activism helped to create the permissive abortion environment Canadian's enjoy today. To protect and expand this key step in women's liberation, the feminist movement has to remain strong, be willing to be controversial and be explicit and resolute in the goal of ending patriarchy.

Unwanted pregnancy risks not only student’s educations and careers, it also risks their ability to choose to have children if and when they want. Against a patriarchal vision of everyone but cisgender-men as vessels for childbirth, feminists must posit and work to create a better future of not just bodily but political autonomy too. For feminist student activists, the past is behind us. Now is our turn to advocate for a future free from patriarchy.