The Militant (logo)  
   Vol. 68/No. 19           May 18, 2004  
 
 
Canada marchers defend women’s right to choose
 
BY PATRICIA O’BEIRNE  
OTTAWA, Canada—Hundreds of people marched here April 25 to support a woman’s right to choose and to demand expanded access to abortion facilities across Canada. The protest was part of a nationwide day of action called by the Pro-Choice Action Network and Planned Parenthood Federation of Canada, timed to coincide with the massive pro-choice March for Women’s Lives in Washington, D.C. (see report in last week’s Militant).

Marches and rallies were also held in Vancouver, Toronto, and other locations in Canada across at least five provinces.

At the end of the march, organizers presented a Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. Henry Morgantaler for his prominent part in the fight for the right to choose. In 1975, Morgentaler was sent to jail for 18 months for breaking the country’s repressive abortion laws at his clinic in Montreal, Quebec, which he had opened six years earlier.

He was released after 10 months following widespread protests. In 1988 the Canadian Supreme Court struck down the country’s antiabortion laws.

Morgantaler told the rally, “In Canada, the victory is not complete. There are four provinces that refuse to pay for abortions.” Linda Capperauld from Planned Parenthood added, “Less than 18 percent of hospitals in Canada provide abortions—it’s great that we have the right to choose, but it’s a pretty empty right without access.”

A recent newsletter of the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League said, “the shrinking pool of hospitals that are willing or able to provide abortions is a great obstacle for women, especially in rural or northern communities.”
 

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BY NED DMYTRYSHYN
AND CHRIS HOEPPNER  
VANCOUVER, British Columbia—“Our bodies, our lives, our right to decide,” chanted 200 supporters of abortion rights at the national day of action protest here on April 25. The demonstration was organized by a number of student and women’s rights organizations, including Students for Choice at the University of British Columbia, the Pro-Choice Network, the Vancouver Women’s Health Collective, and the British Columbia Women’s Centre.

The protest was enthusiastic, militant, and young—a show of hands at the rally indicated that more than half the marchers were under 35. “I’m here because I want to have the choice,” Caeli, 16, a high school student at Vancouver Technical School, told the Militant.

Simon Fraser University student Karen McAthy said that she had joined the demonstration because “our right to choice is at risk and every day it’s a fight.”

Marchers carried signs reading, “My Body My Choice,” “Keep Your Laws Off My Body,” and “Speak Up For Women’s Choice.”

Speakers at the rally described the history of the fight for abortion rights. Participants were urged to visit picket lines set up by health-care workers at 350 hospitals and other facilities across British Columbia. Some took up the invitation after the rally, joining picket lines at St. Paul’s hospital.  
 
 
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