Today is the 34th Anniversary of Roe vs. Wade.
The U.S. has been fighting for abortion rights hot and heavy this year - 34 years after they became legal.
But in Canada they are not legal.
They are not illegal.
They are just - not.
Legally, women have no abortion rights in Canada. Abortion is decriminalized - very very different, but there are no laws surrounding them. As such, there are still protests, there is lack of services, there is lack of medical coverage in a country where medicine is supposed to be covered. There are provinces with one government-supported abortion clinic, leaving women in remote rural areas to fend for themselves, to cover expensive travel costs - or just to not get one at all.
Most recently abortion rights in Canada came under attack when women’s rights in New Brunswick were rolled back this year.
In Canada, the government is supposed to pay for abortions in both hospitals and abortion clinics. However, many provinces do not pay for abortions in clinics, or pay only part of the costs.
This year in New Brunswick, the medicare system was changed to only pay for abortions if it takes place by a gynecologist in a recognized hospital and only if 2 doctors deem it medically necessary for the woman.
Women who have no medically necessary reason for an abortion can go to Fredericton, New Brunswick to pay $750 for an abortion - plus travel costs and expenses and lost work wages - if they can get to Fredericton in the first place.
In Prince Edward Island, the government will not pay for abortions at all. Women must travel out of province to the abortion clinic in New Brunswick. If they can.
So why am I pro-choice?
Because it is my body.
Because someday, I might need the option of having an abortion. Of not being a single mother, of having choice in my life to move my life forward.
Several years ago, I learned that my mother had had an abortion as a teenager. As I was born in 1978 when my mother was 21, I cannot imagine the circumstances that my mother might have gone through to have to have an abortion as a teenager in rural British Columbia in the 1970s. But I am thankful that she had the option, had the choice - because without that, her life would’ve been entirely different. So would my life, and my brother’s if that existed at all.
Why am I pro-choice?
Because there truly is no other choice when you believe in women’s lives, in women’s equality, in women’s rights to freedom and respect and choice and equality and justice.
Today is the 34th Anniversary of Roe vs Wade and I’m blogging for choice.
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