Canada’s Evacuation Policy requires Indigenous pregnant women living in rural and remote reserves to evacuate their communities and access Western healthcare services upon reaching 36-38 weeks gestation. The Canadian government enforces this policy under the guise that it provides healthcare that is otherwise inaccessible to Indigenous women, thus promoting medical equity. However, the forcible removal of Indigenous women from their communities, requiring them to abandon their cultural birthing …
Read moreCanada’s Evacuation Policy requires Indigenous pregnant women living in rural and remote reserves to evacuate their communities and access Western healthcare services upon reaching 36-38 weeks gestation. The Canadian government enforces this policy under the guise that it provides healthcare that is otherwise inaccessible to Indigenous women, thus promoting medical equity. However, the forcible removal of Indigenous women from their communities, requiring them to abandon their cultural birthing practices, and legislating their assimilation into Western healthcare settings is merely a continuation of the Canadian government’s settler colonial violence towards Indigenous peoples. While posing itself to help Indigenous women, this policy is a glorified practice of social control and eugenics that directly contradicts the goals of the reproductive rights movement. In order to move towards reproductive justice for Indigenous women, Canada’s Evacuation Policy must be removed.
