Reproductive Rights & Justice Rally, May 14 2022 at 1pm a šxʷƛ̓exən Xwtl’a7shn (formerly known as Queen Elizabeth Plaza) south side on Georgia Street
A network of social justice and reproductive rights groups has come together to say never again and not here in relation to changes afoot to abortion access in the United States. “There is an entire generation of women, girls, trans men, nonbinary and Two-Spirit folks that have never known a time when access to abortion was not legal”, says a spokesperson for the group. “This is why we are inviting folks in Vancouver and beyond to join us this Saturday at 1pm to rally for reproductive justice and rights.”
“The news that the US Supreme Court will likely overturn Roe v Wade is deeply upsetting” says Joyce Arthur, Executive Director of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada. “What a profound violation of fundamental human rights! We need to channel our feelings of outrage into action. Let’s stand in solidarity with US activists fighting for reproductive justice, but also take action here at home.”
That action here at home relates to what is clearly unequitable access to abortion services across BC. Racialized, 2S/LGBTQAI+ and disabled people experience greater barriers to access along with people living in rural and remote communities. In BC, too many people must travel long distances for services and timeliness is imperative to assure that choice is available.
“People across BC continue to face barriers when trying to access sexual and reproductive health services, whether it is people in rural and remote communities struggling to travel to a
clinic to access an abortion or contraceptive services, stigma, or the high cost of prescription contraception” says Teale Phelps Bondaroff, Chair and Co-Founder of the AccessBC Campaign. “We need a provincial government committed to reproductive justice, as there is work to be done.”
We can lower the number of unwanted pregnancies in BC in various ways. The network behind the rally is calling on the BC Government to:
- Make contraception free and universally accessible in BC and across Canada.
- Ensure that comprehensive sex ed is taught to the standards set by the Ministry of Education in BC.
- Deny any government funding to all Crisis Pregnancy Centres and require them to clearly disclose their anti-abortion agenda to clients.
- Implement an Access without Fear/Sanctuary City framework provincially to allow undocumented people to access care.
- Make sexual and reproductive health care trans- and gender-inclusive.
- Implement $10/day childcare.
Organizers are asking people to wear green. Details can be found on event page Reproductive Rights & Justice Rally FB.
The network includes Options for Sexual Health, UBC Social Justice Centre, Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, BC Humanist Association and AccessBC.
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