I'm happy to offer the last word on it.
Despite the passage of time since Morgentaler, there's no meaningful shift in the reasoning that was used there.
Justice Bertha Wilson, in that case, concurred with five different judges, and they all gave different decisions. She remarked that this section
takes the decision away from the woman at all stages of her pregnancy. It is a complete denial of the woman's constitutionally protected right under s. 7, not merely a limitation on it.
She then goes on to say that:
The purpose of the section is to take the decision away from the woman and give it to a committee. It asserts that the woman's capacity to reproduce is to be subject, not to her own control, but to that of the state. This is a direct interference with the woman's physical "person".
Those same rationales would apply forcefully here.
With regard to the benefits to which Dr. Chochinov points in terms of our needing to know how this is being done and so forth, there are many other ways of finding out that information, of gathering data and so forth, that have nothing whatsoever to do with saying this is a decision that ought to be made by some delegated body exercising state authority under a statute.
If I may, I'd like to respond to Mr. Cooper—