Canada – Anti-abortion imagery on campus is an accessibility issue

Paid staff of anti-abortion groups are displaying graphic fetal images on campus

By Al Draghici, The Varsity
January 23, 2022

Maybe you’ve seen it — groups of people with huge, graphic signs standing on all four corners of an intersection, asking innocuous questions to passersby as though they are holding nothing more than an infographic. In reality, they are holding macabre, bloody pictures of non-viable fetuses as they block the sidewalk, making the images unavoidable as they feign innocence, saying, “How do you feel about abortion?”

When I lived in London, Ontario, I decided to join the Viewer Discretion Legislation Coalition (VDLC) after I found a graphic anti-abortion flyer with visible gruesome images on my living room floor. The distributors of these pamphlets had shoved it through my mail slot, into my house. This graphic, unsolicited pamphlet was pushed into my home and forced upon me.

Continued: https://thevarsity.ca/2022/01/23/op-ed-anti-abortion-protests-on-campus/

Canada – Draft bylaw to stop graphic anti-abortion fliers may get more focus and sharper teeth

Daryl Newcombe, CTV News London Reporter
Published Nov. 3, 2021

LONDON, ONT. - London may soon be the latest city to block the delivery of graphic anti-abortion flyers delivered to mailboxes, but the broad-based approach could restrict virtually all unaddressed mail delivered to participating households.

In November 2020, city council directed staff to prepare a draft bylaw after receiving numerous complaints that viewing the unsolicited flyers traumatized children and couples who have experienced pregnancy loss.

Continued: https://london.ctvnews.ca/draft-bylaw-to-stop-graphic-anti-abortion-fliers-may-get-more-focus-and-sharper-teeth-1.5650697

03.11.2021

Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada

anti-choice extremism

anti-choice graphic images

Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform

CCBR

Community and Protective Services Committee

Deanna Ronson

graphic flyers in mailboxes

Jesse Helmer

Shawn Lewis

Viewer Discretion Legislation Coalition

Graphic Anti-Abortion Material is Hate Speech

Graphic and gory images sent to mailboxes and waved in public have long been a tool of anti-abortion campaigns. Does it count as hate propaganda against people who need abortions? Let’s test it against the Supreme Court-endorsed “Hallmarks of Hate.”

Posted on July 23, 2021
By Hazel Woodrow

Across social media platforms, communities warn each other about the presence of graphic anti-abortion propaganda in their neighbourhoods. These conversations often question the legality of stuffing gory pamphlets into strangers’ mailboxes en masse, or of displaying such imagery on banners and placards in busy metropolitan areas.

Search the subreddit for nearly any city across Canada and you’ll find frequent warnings. A Halifax local remarked on the “Extremely graphic anti-abortion flyer in my mailbox.” In Saskatoon, an “Anti-abortion flyers warning” hit the forum. As one Ottawa shares, “I really don't want to see pictures of dead and dismembered babies every day on bank street.”

Continued: https://www.antihate.ca/opinion_graphic_anti_abortion_material_hate_speech

Canada – Why Are We Still Talking About Abortion?

Abortion is one of the most polarizing topics at play around the world.

By Melissa Parker
December 23, 2020

Politicians, lawmakers, scientists, the healthcare industry and women in particular, and humanity as a whole, have a stake in the legalities surrounding abortion and the right to choose them. Here in Canada, abortion is legal, safe and covered through our health care infrastructure – though, difficult to find in some rural communities. Current legislation allows Canadian women have the right to access abortion procedures up to 24 weeks of pregnancy with medical emergency abortions available after that window. These late-term abortions, while legal, are rare and based on necessity but may require travel to another province or the USA.

In Canadian politics, Erin O’Toole, the new Conservative leader, has publicly
announced that he would not allow his party to open the discussion on abortion
law in our country. This is a far cry
from the previous leader, Andrew Scheer who slyly skirted the conversation
indicating that “he” wouldn’t reopen the discussion but his MPPs were free
to. Under Scheer, more than 40
conservative leaders across the country openly shared their agendas to make
abortion illegal again, including MPP Sam Oosterhoff – it will be interesting
to see how open they will be under new leadership and too early to say when the
topic will arise again.

Continued: https://londonfuse.ca/opinion-why-are-we-still-talking-about-abortion/

Canada – Politicians, activists trying to stop display and distribution of graphic anti-abortion images

One petition is going to city politicians, another will be presented in the provincial legislature

Kate Dubinski · CBC News
Posted: Oct 26, 2020

A battle in London against graphic abortion images displayed and distributed by a Calgary-based group is being fought on several fronts, including counter-protests and petitions to municipal and provincial politicians.

NDP MPP Terence Kernaghan has one petition on his website, calling for a provincial injunction against the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform (CCBR) and its flyers which show aborted fetuses.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/politicians-activists-trying-to-stop-display-and-distribution-of-graphic-anti-abortion-images-1.5776582

Canada – Graphic Anti-Abortion Signs Feel Like Visual Terrorism, But Should They Be Banned?

Graphic Anti-Abortion Signs Feel Like Visual Terrorism, But Should They Be Banned?
*Trigger Warning: This article discusses the graphic imagery used by some anti-abortion protesters*

by Katherine Singh
Sep 26, 2018

It was a typical Friday afternoon in July for Apiecalypse Now! owner Jennifer Bundock. The vegan pizzeria owner was driving to her east end Toronto location when she received a text from the manager of her west end location: “We’ve got a situation.”

Anti-abortion activists had set up shop in front of the restaurant with graphic signs. She pulled a U-turn and headed back to the Bloor Street spot, passing the old Honest Ed’s lot and pulling up 10 minutes later in front of her restaurant. Then she started live-streaming on Instagram. In a now-viral video, Bundock exits her car and confronts a group of anti-abortion activists, who were standing outside of her restaurant in plain view of the front window, holding large signs depicting dismembered and bloody fetuses. What the video didn’t show? Bundock’s customers, who were attempting to stand in front of the protestors’ signs when she arrived, trying to shield the images from passersby as well as the daycare and Girl Scout office around the corner.

Continued: https://www.flare.com/news/anti-abortion-signs/

Canadian judge bars graphic antiabortion bus ads — to prevent an ‘uncomfortable environment’

By Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
Washington Post
January 11, 2017

As graphic antiabortion ads go, the sign was fairly tame. The problem was the location.

Although the Canadian Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CCBR) believes gruesome images of aborted fetuses can jar people into becoming abortion opponents, the organization's ad campaign in Grande Prairie, Alberta, had no blood or gore.

But the CCBR wanted to post the ads on buses in the Canadian city. That meant anyone glancing at a passing bus would see pictures of fetuses along with a phrase: “ABORTION KILLS CHILDREN.”

City officials rejected the ad, launching a two-year court battle that pitted the CCBR's right to freedom of expression against the city's authority to decide what's inappropriate to paste on the side of a municipal bus.

[continued at link]
Source: Washington Post

11.01.2017