Varied paths towards feminist policy change

Guided by comparative gender and politics scholarship, this article uses publicly available sources to examine two pro-choice policy reforms: the public funding of clinic abortions and safe zone legislation, designed to protect patients and medical providers from threats posed by protesters. It focuses on partisan and religious circumstances in four Canadian provinces where feminist movements were strong and where opposition to a pro-choice Supreme Court decision was so vehement that it turned violent. The study’s main contribution rests in a typology illustrating the diverse paths towards policy reform in Canada, whereby change unfolded differently across jurisdictions. My results dovetail with previous research in underlining the significance of religiosity to feminist–left party relations, even in a country with relatively weak levels of faith. The discussion stands out from earlier scholarship in documenting the importance of centrist governments at the federal and sub-national levels to pro-choice outcomes and in showing varied feminist–conservative party relationships