2021 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 3(1) Health is a fundamental human right. 12 Governments, as duty bearers, are required to ensure that abortion care, as part of the right to health, is available, accessible, accepted and of quality. Despite this, governments routinely deny and violate the right to health, particularly for individuals without immigration status or documentation. This is particularly jarring in Canada, a high-income country with universal health care maintains vital segments of its economy through undocumented labour. 13 There are no federal or provincial health care policies which legally provide undocumented migrants, including stateless individuals, with a right to access healthcare. Being denied an abortion, unsurprisingly, has a serious impact on individuals. One study, which involved research conducted over 10 years on approximately 1,000 women who had or were denied abortions, tracked the impact on mental, physical and economic health. 14 Although the primary focus of the study was on women’s experiences, they also gathered information about the health and development of the children born from women who had sought abortions and were denied. This study found that those denied a wanted abortion are four times more likely to live in poverty than those who accessed care. In addition, women who are denied abortions are more likely to: experience serious complications during their pregnancy including eclampsia and death, stay tied to abusive partners, suffer anxiety and loss of self-esteem in the short term after being denied abortion, lack aspirational life plans for the coming year, have weaker maternal bonds with their children and raise children without supports from other adults, among other outcomes. 15 This study does not speak to the further challenges faced by stateless people and migrant with precarious statuses. When government and health system policies restrict or fail to ensure the accessibility of abortion, people can be compelled to resort to clandestine, unsafe abortions, particularly those who cannot afford to travel or seek private care. Restricted access to abortion does not stop abortions, it just makes abortion less safe. 16 In Canada, when we consider that during the pandemic, the vast majority of people who were denied an abortion were undocumented or had precarious immigration status, we are led to assume that some of them sought to self-manage their abortions without the support of health care providers. 17 One year later, Action Canada is resolute in its commitment to connecting the dots between sexual and reproductive rights and the struggles of migrant, undocumented and stateless people. In Canada, we cannot advocate for improved access to a comprehensive package of sexual health services, including abortion, without centring the challenges experienced by those most impacted by laws, policies and practices that erect barriers to health care. Action Canada and NAF Canada continue to work with health care providers and institutions to create 12 13 14 15 16 17 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, GA Res 217A (III), UN GAOR, UN Doc A/810 (10 December 1948) art 25. Krista Hessey, ‘“Everyone is at Risk”: Migrants and Undocumented Workers Need the COVID-19 Vaccine Too’, Global News (online, 21 June 2021) <https://globalnews.ca/news/7706181/covid-19-vaccine-migrants-undocumented-workers/>. Sarah Miller, Laura R Wherry and Diana Greene Foster, ‘What Happens after an Abortion Denial? A Review of Results from the Turnaway Study’ (2020) 110 AEA Papers and Proceedings. ibid. ‘Preventing Unsafe Abortion’ World Health Organization (Web Page, 25 September 2020), <https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/preventing-unsafe-abortion>. This proposition is based on the author’s own observations. 146