Abortion rights revision: Dobbs , COVID-19, and policy complexity

In the context of transformations in abortion politics in countries like Mexico, where constitutional protections were recently extended, and in the United States, where they were eliminated, it is important to consider the processes through which abortion rights undergo significant change in what appear to be more stable policy landscapes. In this article, I examine the changing meaning and content of the right to abortion in Canada in the context of increased policy complexity generated by two major, recent, transnational events: the US Dobbs decision and the COVID-19 pandemic. This single case study with critical insights provided by activists demonstrates the ways in which complexity generates disruptive, unintended political and policy consequences in a 'boundary spanning' policy regime. Through interpretive analysis of interviews and grounded normative theory, I argue that the right to abortion in Canada has been revised to move beyond its foundational commitments to health care and autonomy and become more attentive to a broader range of reproductive injustices that combine to limit access to abortion and proscribe reproductive freedom.