Canadian Abortion Rights Action League

This is an undated photos of CARAL leaders (clockwise from left): Kathleen Howse, Caroline Lindbergh, Merike Madiso, Ruth Miller, Norma Scarborough, and Karen Hammond.

The Canadian Association for the Repeal of the Abortion Laws (CARAL)/ L’Association canadienne pour le droits à l’avortement (ACDA) was founded in November 1974 by pro-choice activists. In 1980, CARAL changed its name to the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League. CARAL played a leading role in the fight for women’s right to a safe, legal abortion and better access to birth control. The Childbirth by Choice Trust, founded in 1982, was the research and education arm of CARAL. The group also created the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League Newsletter, which was re-named Pro-Choice News in 1985.

More about Canadian Abortion Rights Action League

The Canadian Association for the Repeal of the Abortion Laws (CARAL) was founded in November 1974 by pro-choice activists. Founding members included Norma Scarborough, June Callword, Kay Macpherson, Lorna Grant, Eleanor Wright Pelrine, Esther Greenglass, and Henry Morgentaler. CARAL changed its name to the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League in 1980.

CARAL played a leading role in the fight for women’s right to a safe, legal abortion and better access to birth control. It developed widespread support for challenging the 1969 abortion law which allowed abortions only with the approval of a hospital Therapeutic Abortion Committee. Actions included demonstrations, public meetings, lobbying the government, and letter-writing campaigns. CARAL also backed Dr. Henry Morgentaler’s legal challenges to the abortion law. CARAL stopped operating in 2004.

The Childbirth by Choice Trust, founded in 1982, was the research and education arm of CARAL.

Archival Materials

Buttons

The button distributed by the CARAL supported a woman's right to choose.
C.A.R.A.L. – Freedom of Choice on Abortion

  • Year created:

    --

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
Don't Lose the Right to Choose, October 14, 1989
Don’t Lose the Right to Choose

  • Year created:

    1989

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English

Documents
Abortion in Law and History Pamphlet – CARAL Bulletin 3

  • Year created:

    --

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
Answers to Anti-Choice Arguments

  • Year created:

    --

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
Canadian Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL) News Extra – Fall 1986

  • Year created:

    1986

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
Canadian Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL) News Extra – July 1986

  • Year created:

    1986

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
CARAL – Freedom of Choice Pamphlet

  • Year created:

    --

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
CARAL – Fundraising Letter to Supporters

  • Year created:

    1987

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
CARAL – Parliamentary Brief on the Constitution

  • Year created:

    1980

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
CARAL 6th Annual Meeting – Letter

  • Year created:

    1980

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
CARAL 9th Annual Meeting – Agenda

  • Year created:

    1983

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
CARAL Founding Meeting: Press Release

  • Year created:

    1974

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
CARAL Interim Constitution & By-laws (September 1974)

  • Year created:

    1974

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
Come Out – Rally for Rights

  • Year created:

    1978

  • Region:

    Manitoba

  • Language:

    English
Cross Canada Conference for Abortion Law Repeal

  • Year created:

    1973

  • Author(s):

    Grace MacInnis, Eleanor Wright Pelrine, Doris Anderson , Lorna Grant

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
Day of Action on Abortion Flyer

  • Year created:

    1989

  • Region:

    Ontario

  • Language:

    English
thumbnail of Flyer Against “Right to Life”
Flyer Against “Right to Life”

  • Year created:

    --

  • Region:

    Ontario

  • Language:

    English
Freedom of Choice

  • Year created:

    1979

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
Freedom of Choice Action Week Flyers

  • Year created:

    1981

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
Information for Teens about Abortion

  • Year created:

    --

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
thumbnail of May 28th Coalition Flyer for March & Rally (1977)
May 28th Coalition Flyer for March & Rally (1977)

  • Year created:

    1977

  • Region:

    Ontario

  • Language:

    English
Reproductive Rights – A Statement of Principle

  • Year created:

    1979

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
Reproductive Rights: Responses to Common Misunderstandings

  • Year created:

    --

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
Second Cross Canada Conference for Abortion Law Repeal

  • Year created:

    1973

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English

Periodicals

Canadian Abortion Rights Action League Newsletter

Canadian Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL) Newsletter – Fall 1982

  • Year created:

    1982

  • Publisher:

    Canadian Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL) / Canadienne pour le droit a l'avortement (ACDA)

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
Canadian Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL) Newsletter – Fall 1983

  • Year created:

    1983

  • Publisher:

    Canadian Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL) / Canadienne pour le droit a l'avortement (ACDA)

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English and French
Canadian Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL) Newsletter – June 1981

  • Year created:

    1981

  • Publisher:

    Canadian Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL) / Canadienne pour le droit a l'avortement (ACDA)

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
Canadian Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL) Newsletter – Summer 1982

  • Year created:

    1982

  • Publisher:

    Canadian Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL) / Canadienne pour le droit a l'avortement (ACDA)

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
Canadian Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL) Newsletter – Summer 1983

  • Year created:

    1983

  • Publisher:

    Canadian Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL) / Canadienne pour le droit a l'avortement (ACDA)

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English and French
Canadian Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL) Newsletter – Winter 1982

  • Year created:

    1982

  • Publisher:

    Canadian Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL) / Canadienne pour le droit a l'avortement (ACDA)

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
Canadian Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL) Newsletter – Winter 1983

  • Year created:

    1983

  • Publisher:

    Canadian Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL) / Canadienne pour le droit a l'avortement (ACDA)

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
Canadian Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL) Newsletter – Fall 1984

  • Year created:

    1984

  • Publisher:

    Canadian Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL) / Canadienne pour le droit a l'avortement (ACDA)

  • Language:

    English
Canadian Abortion Rights Action League Newsletter – Spring 1985

  • Year created:

    1985

  • Publisher:

    Canadian Abortion Rights Action League

  • Author(s):

    Norma Scarborough

  • Language:

    English
Canadian Association for the Repeal of the Abortion Law Newsletter – April 1979

  • Year created:

    1979

  • Publisher:

    Canadian Association for the Repeal of the Abortion Law

  • Language:

    English
Canadian Association for the Repeal of the Abortion Law Newsletter – January 1979

  • Year created:

    1979

  • Publisher:

    Canadian Association for Repeal of the Abortion Law

  • Author(s):

    Merike Madisso

  • Language:

    English
Canadian Association for the Repeal of the Abortion Law Newsletter – January 1981

  • Year created:

    1981

  • Publisher:

    Canadian Association for the Repeal of the Abortion Law

  • Author(s):

    Karen Hammond

  • Language:

    English
Canadian Association for the Repeal of the Abortion Law Newsletter – July 1979

  • Year created:

    1979

  • Publisher:

    Canadian Association for the Repeal of the Abortion Law

  • Language:

    English

Pro-Choice News

Pro-Choice News – Spring 1988

  • Year created:

    1988

  • Publisher:

    Canadian Abortion Rights Action League

  • Author(s):

    Norma Scarborough

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
Pro-Choice News – Summer 1985

  • Year created:

    1985

  • Publisher:

    Canadian Abortion Rights Action League

  • Author(s):

    Norma Scarborough

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
Pro-Choice News – Summer 1987

  • Year created:

    1987

  • Publisher:

    Canadian Abortion Rights Action League

  • Author(s):

    Norma Scarborough, Ellen Goodman, Robin Rowe

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
Pro-Choice News – Winter 1985

  • Year created:

    1985

  • Publisher:

    Canadian Abortion Rights Action League

  • Author(s):

    Norma Scarborough, Garry Trudeau, Penny Kome

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
Pro-Choice News – Winter 1987

  • Year created:

    1987

  • Publisher:

    Canadian Abortion Rights Action League

  • Author(s):

    Norma Scarborough, Lasha Morningstar, Libby Scheier, June Callwood

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

  • Language:

    English
Pro-Choice News – Spring 1998

  • Year created:

    1998

  • Publisher:

    Canadian Abortion Rights Action League

  • Author(s):

    Ann Decter (Editor), Norma Scarborough

  • Language:

    English

Photos

This is an unidentified photo of a pro-choice protest.
Abortion Rights Protest

  • Year created:

    --

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)
This is an undated photos of CARAL leaders (clockwise from left): Kathleen Howse, Caroline Lindbergh, Merike Madiso, Ruth Miller, Norma Scarborough, and Karen Hammond.
Abortion Rights: Canadian Association for Repeal of the Abortion Law (CARAL)

  • Year created:

    --

  • Photographer:

    Pamela Harris

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)
This is an undated photos of CARAL leaders, including : Kathleen Howse, Caroline Lindbergh, Ruth Miller, Norma Scarborough and Karen Hammond.
Abortion Rights: Canadian Association for Repeal of the Abortion Law (CARAL)

  • Year created:

    --

  • Photographer:

    Pamela Harris

  • Region:

    Ontario
Norma Scarborough and Henry Morgentaler hold a copy of The Toronto Star with front-page headlines announcing the historic Supreme Court decision taken on January 28, 1988, stating that Canada's abortion law is not legal.
Abortion Rights: Henry Morgentaler and Norma Scarborough Celebrate 1988 Supreme Court Ruling

  • Year created:

    1988

  • Photographer:

    Lorna Rapson Ferguson

  • Region:

    Ontario
The CARAL banner highlights the National Day of Action on October 13,1990, and the slogan "Don't Criminalise Abortion in Canada." Women's groups across Canada were asked to produce a protest banner that would become part of a huge banner in Ottawa. The goal was to show the strength and solidarity of women during the Third Commonwealth meeting of Ministers Responsible for Women’s Affairs in October 1990.
The Banner Project (1990): CARAL

  • Year created:

    1990

  • Photographer:

    Amy Gottlieb

  • Region:

    National (all of Canada)

Posters
Control of Our Bodies March

  • Year created:

    1982

  • Region:

    Ontario

  • Language:

    English