I needed a few weeks after Roe V. Wade was overturned to gather my thoughts on this subject, but also to do my research of what access to safe abortion looks like in Canada. Truth be told, I needed a few weeks to pick myself off the ground too. We’re launching repressive, dangerous new laws by the day now and this is a marathon not a sprint and I was feeling burnt the fuck out (anyone else)? Is anyone else getting tired of people who create an alternate reality for themselves where they claim to have a higher consciousness than scientists. Scientists who quite literally give us a playbook to keep our planet and our children safe and instead some can’t face the truth of what we’ve done so just says things like “that doesn’t apply to me, I know things will be okay” or “I have a direct connection to god”. These claims of false realities, conspiracy theories, and acting like they’re the authority on anything that dare provokes their version of the “truth” has become part of the reason these oppressive unthinkable new laws have passed denying people their fundamental rights. They are the reason we have a majority conservative government knowing 73% of conservative MP’s are anti-choice. Yes, Canada is a hop, skip and a jump away from having our reproductive rights taken away too, so it may be time to face the behavioural patterns and truths of where we are right now, instead of continuing to support a government that ran a platform where they made you think there will be less restrictions, only to make choices that lead to the marginalized being even more oppressed. The only people who benefit from an anti-mask, privatized health care / anti-abortion platform are rich white cis men who procreate like it’s a sport to get their seed out there, I’m looking at you Elon Musk.
Let’s just start with the facts, your connection to God doesn’t bypass scientific evidence on how we’re going to get out of this mess if that’s even possible at this point. Ford wins when he has promised to build a highway over protected green space when we have maybe a few more years to really address climate change before our actual children may not have the future we were once granted. The thought of this makes me sick to my stomach and I don’t even have children. I sincerely worry about younger generations who are so much smarter than me, who teach me so much about inclusivity every single day not getting to live a life with the same access to green space, rights, and in truth just being able to live a life to old age. Ford has also promised to privatize health care, in fact many cancer patients took to social media to plead, as on top of going through cancer treatments Ford has taken away accessible bloodwork, for something that OHIP once covered. I shared a lot of these pleas over my social media hoping it would help people to realize that unless you’re too rich to care about paying for health care we actually need people to show up and vote for someone with a platform promising more health care in spite of who you have always voted for, and yet voting turnout was the lowest it’s ever been at only 43.5% of Ontario showing up to vote. I know people are tired and maybe feel things can’t get any worse, but trust me when I say, it can! We could lose our access to safe abortion, and we could even lose access to health care. We need all hands-on deck. Majority of people want everyone to have access to body sovereignty, yet the loudest are winning right now. A conservative majority government in Ontario when there is a public easily accessible document showing that approximately 73% of all conservative MPs in Canada are anti-choice? Seriously? I see so many people posting for abortion rights, but still voting Ford. Is it possible to care about more than just your minor inconvenience of having to wear a mask and show proof of a vaccination? Does anyone care about anything anymore?
Here is the dark side of abortion rights in Canada:
- Indigenous women are still forced into sterilization
- Abortion access is extremely limited if you’re rural and in some provinces like P.E.I it wasn’t even an option until 2017 and even now if you need to travel outside of the province to get one it will not be covered, meaning your travel expense and your abortion is all on you.
- Doctors can still deny you an abortion if it conflicts with their religious beliefs no matter how unethical it may be.
- Here is a comprehensive look at access in this country, simply click here!
- Only one if six hospitals offer abortions.
- There are only 11 abortion clinics in Ontario, 9 of which are in Toronto (this one shocked me)
- People were still going to the US for late abortions, meaning although Canada advertises these services many clinics will not do them.
Abortion equity is not the same as we are an abortion friendly country, meaning just because we offer safe abortions, does not mean that everyone can access them. Many people without a car in a rural part of Canada who work to live cannot travel or have anyone to help them get to another province to get one. This is a huge issue in Canada and one that needs to be addressed. If approximately 73% of Conservative MP’s are anti-choice and one of those MP’s win a majority in your area it is very possible they will do everything in their power to make it inaccessible in that riding and this matters. That is why voting has never been more important and it is why I spent the first half of this blog talking about how my provincial government affects the lives of so many. I just want more people to be informed and care! “As a country, we say we are pro-choice and that we care. But to be pro-choice, we need to be able to offer the choice in the first place,” says Frederique Chabot, the director of domestic health promotion at Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights.
I worry we’re at a pivotal point where my nephews and niece may not be able to live to old age and if they do it will be filled with natural disaster after natural disaster and having to live fighting constantly for basic human rights that their parents had. I just want to die leaving this world better than what I was born into, and right now we’re moving backwards. We can’t be complacent on issues we could help with now. To give up now is something I understand more than you may think. Trust me when I say, watching what this world has become, while going through a pandemic that is still killing people in the thousands and be gaslit and told it’s over all because some cannot deal with the reality of the terror we are living through has been anything but easy. There are days I want to give up too! Turn off the news, live in ignorant bliss and convince myself that I really can’t make a difference so I might as well only focus on my own happiness! But then I look at the voter turnout and the fact that every single statistic shows most people do actually want every single person to have access to health care and abortion rights and throw their support behind the LGBTQIA+ and realize if we do give up our fate will be in the hands of cis white men who never tire of fighting and won’t be happy until we have no rights at all – and we can’t let that happen. WE NEED YOU, ALL OF YOU! Here is the thing, once upon a time voting conservative meant you were voting for a government that simply supported your family and lifestyle better. Most people who I know may hold different personal beliefs about abortion but still support your choice to do what’s best for you. It’s a very small percentage who are screaming into the void for all human rights to be taken away and usually it is very fragile people who feel wronged by life and need to throw their anger into some cause and mine as well be an anti-choice cause. That is why you’ll see the same people who are fighting for sovereignty over their own bodies at an anti-vaccine freedom convoy fighting alongside anti-abortion rights, it’s not about choice, it’s their form of therapy in releasing their anger without having to do any actual work on themselves. It’s their form of therapy and self-expression in a world where they feel they’ve been wronged and now they don’t know how to express their emotions properly, so they need to hurt everyone to ease their own pain. It’s also a way for people who feel powerless to act out in a morally superior way and stand for something, when really they’re just trying to gain back some control no matter who it hurts. That is of course only my opinion, but I stand by it.
It’s clear some won’t change their minds in this, and I will have to be at peace with that. I do worry though that we’ve all become so desensitized to so much trauma we’re living through that we don’t even realize we are choosing apathy over empathy.
I leave you with a series of questions: Why is it that so many people only care about an issue when it hits home? Why do certain conservative officials only care about gay rights if it’s one of their sons coming out as gay? Why do some people only care about abortion rights when it’s their wife who needs an abortion? Can’t we get to a place where we can have empathy for everyone without calling people radicals or unintelligent or overly emotional? I live in Ottawa we’ve had two life altering tornadoes in the last 4+ years that affected my community personally. Ottawa is not a place where we grew up with tornadoes at all. You can’t deny the facts for much longer and as we watch people die and be denied healthcare and highways being built and turtles dying (click here for full story), and deer ending up in neighbourhoods because they have nowhere else to go I ask you to please care.
Here are some places I have researched that are a good place to put your money. It’s a tax right off and you can save this blog and visit it when you have an extra 20$! Every penny counts! I go into more details on each organization listen below in this week’s newsletter.
https://donate.abortionfunds.org/give/387742/#!/donation/checkout?c_src=springemail3
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/bffforaccess
https://keepourclinics.org/donate/
