In this chapter, we discuss the complex operation of choice, specifically how choosing to mother (or not) is reproduced in the context of family and revealed in women’s life stories.¹ We draw on Canadian data collected as part of an international comparative study that explored the narratives of three generations of women. Their stories illustrate how dominant discourses about chastity, conception, contraception, abortion, and becoming a mother are conveyed by society, including the health care system, the Church, and the state – sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly – and mediated by women within the family and transmitted across generations. We intend to convey...

The provision of in vitro fertilization and other related infertility treatments has been a subject of much debate among researchers and commentators. For some, infertility is regarded as a legitimate health issue deserving of medical and state intervention. Among feminist critics, assisted human reproduction is regarded as a new site for the medical exploitation of women. While acknowledging the inequalities engendered by reproductive technologies on a social scale, this chapter’s main focus is the politics of the public provision of infertility treatments, in particular the consequences of distinguishing “legitimate” versus “illegitimate” users of these services. Through public policy, decisions surrounding...

Since the mid-1990s, the legal rights relating to queer reproduction and family rights have been revised a number of times in British Columbia. Three particular policy updates exemplify these changes. The first of these occurred in 1995, when a Human Rights Tribunal decision made it illegal for physicians and clinics to deny lesbians access to fertility services in BC. The second change happened the following year, when it became legal in BC for any one or two adults – regardless of sexual orientation or marital status – to adopt children. Third, in 2001, a BC Human Rights Tribunal ruled that it was...

Interest in the conceptual innovation of intersectionality has increased steadily over the past three decades. Initially the contribution of critical race theory and feminist analysis, intersectionality has grown to include a wide range of philosophical and political approaches. The focus of intersectional research is the multiple ways in which systems of oppression combine to produce marginalizing effects. According to Laurel Weldon (2008, 195–6), intersectionality “is a social-theoretical contribution of feminist theory to efforts to understand and conceptualize social relations. It refers to a form of relationship between social structures, specifically one in which social structures combine to create social...

On 24 April 2009, the Supreme Court of Canada heard the appeal inAttorney General of Quebec v. Attorney General of Canada(QCCA 2008, 1167). In this case, the Quebec government challenged the validity of the Assisted Human Reproduction Act (AHRA)¹ on the grounds that certain sections of the Act² areultra viresthe Parliament of Canada under the Constitution Act, 1867 (c.3, U.K.); that is, they fall outside the legislative authority of Parliament.³ The Quebec Court of Appeal concluded that the impugned provisions areultra viresParliament. The attorney general of Canada appealed the decision to the Supreme Court....

On 10 May 2009, hundreds of demonstrators marched on Queen’s Park with strollers in tow to demand that the Government of Ontario expand its funding of in vitro fertilization. Fondly called the “pram push,” the demonstration took place on Mother’s Day and was intended to bring the infertility community together and “convince the Ontario government that infertility was a medical condition like diabetes and high blood pressure, and therefore should be funded under the Ontario Health Insurance Plan” (Horibe 2010, 35).

As the “pram push” was being planned in Ontario, a bill was being debated in Quebec’s Assemblée nationale that...

On 22 February 1982, Jean Ritz died of anoxia in a Kitchener-Waterloo hospital just hours after being “caught” at home by two community midwives.² The coroner determined that the anoxia had been caused by “infection which was introduced into the uterine cavity as a result of rupture of the amniotic membrane” (Office of the Chief Coroner, 20 May 1982). After this finding, the coroner, Dr Jack Burger, made two recommendations: first, that the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (C P S O) and the College of Nurses of Ontario (C N O) work together to develop standards of...

Breastfeeding policy is a touchstone issue for feminism because it highlights the inextricable tensions between the bio-physicality of the female body and larger cultural, political, and economic structural arrangements that affect gender roles.¹ The practice of breastfeeding directly confronts tensions between women’s reproductive and productive lives, as it confers on women a greater reproductive burden than men. It is also at the centre of debates about whether women should seek gender equality by minimizing gender differences or whether, by recognizing the inextricable reproductive differences, women should exert pressure to adjust the current patriarchal, social, and economic structures to accommodate female...

Ask a Canadian what differences exist between Canadian and American cultures, and single-payer health insurance is usually the first answer. Depending on individual interests, a plethora of other social values are potential seconds. Higher education funding. Gun control. Capital punishment. Gay marriage. First Nations. Language. Multiculturalism. Abortion.

Wait, abortion? Certainly, unlike Canada’s neighbour to the south, where abortion debate appears increasingly vitriolic and the two year election cycle of state and national representatives keeps abortion near the top of the public agenda, public opinion polls over the last decade consistently show that a majority of Canadians support legal abortion and...

Even though direct-to-consumer advertising is not permitted in Canada, pharmaceutical companiesareable to market directly to prospective and current customers on the Internet. This has resulted in the rise of web-based marketing campaigns created by pharmaceutical companies seeking to build customer loyalty to a particular brand. In contemporary North American society, the emergence of web-based marketing of prescription drugs highlights the increased presence of pharmaceutical companies in the daily lives and homes of individuals (Fox and Ward 2008). Individuals are able to easily access information about pharmaceutical products. Web-based marketing is a new and important site where the social...

The question of what to feed the baby is not a new one. And it is a question that is deeply intertwined with ideas about the family, time, gender roles, science, and technology. Currently, Canadian policy on topics as diverse as early childhood development, nutrition and obesity, and childbirth practices emphasizes the importance of breastfeeding promotion. Historically, since the end of the nineteenth century, breastfeeding practices have received widespread attention in Canada, partly because of the influence of breastfeeding on health outcomes such as infant mortality and morbidity. Over the past century, breastfeeding has often intersected with other areas of...

Breastfeeding is principally understood in terms of caring for and nourishing babies. Consideration of what women may get out of breastfeeding is often left out of the discussion. Women are subject to discourses of power in carrying out breastfeeding, and in this chapter I discuss these power discourses in terms of both the medical and the maternalist models (Blum 2000). Working to resist these power discourses requires changing one’s self-conception to include breastfeeding as an exercise of one’s own power and creativity. An overemphasis on the responsibility to care for others can be detrimental to women’s sense of self. In...

Reproductive politics takes place as communities struggle to achieve recognition and redress for corporeal concerns.¹ In 2005,Environmental Health Perspectivespublished an article on a perceived male “birth dearth” in Aamjiwnaang, which left civil servants dumb-founded and spawned a flurry of media attention worldwide ( Mackenzie, Keith, and Lockridge 2005). Scientists and members of the Aamjiwnaang community argued that hormone-mimicking en-docrine disruptors could be to blame for the skewed birth patterns, due to the interference of synthetic organic chemicals with natural hormones. According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (C B C) documentaryThe Disappearing Male, pollutants known as endocrine-disruptors can...