Ackerman Katrina
Department of History, University of Waterloo.
Can Bull Med Hist. 2014 Fall;31(2):117-138. doi: 10.3138/cbmh.31.2.117.
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.
在整个20世纪70年代和80年代，爱德华王子岛生命权协会（RTLA）游说医学专业人士、医院董事会、政治家和邻居，以阻止夏洛特敦和萨默塞德医院公司（该岛仅有的堕胎服务提供者）撤销其治疗性堕胎委员会。由于堕胎委员会并非强制性的，且只有医院董事会负责在经认可的医院设立委员会，RTLA推选支持生命权的成员进入董事会，并投票反对堕胎委员会的章程，以设置堕胎获取障碍。通过在医院公司中占据关键职位，支持生命权的活动人士确保了岛上医院的堕胎服务在法律和医学上不再被允许。本文借鉴了RTLA和政府记录、报纸文章以及对支持生命权活动人士的访谈，以突出该组织创建一场重要社会运动的途径。通过质疑堕胎的科学依据，RTLA迅速成为一场不仅针对支持选择运动，也针对主流医学界的反运动。
