50 years after the Abortion Caravan protests, Karin Wells retraces their steps on virtual book tour
By: Ryan Porter
May 8th, 2020
The timing was perfect – until it wasn’t. Journalist Karin Wells planned to mark the 50th anniversary of the Abortion Caravan, a group of activists who drove across Canada from Vancouver to Ottawa protesting anti-abortion laws, with a book tour that mirrored the stops made by the caravan in 1970. Her history of the protest, The Abortion Caravan: When Women Shut Down the Government in the Battle for the Right to Choose (Second Story Press), was published April 21.
When COVID-19 made travel impossible, Wells and Second Story put together a plan to salvage the tour. Wells recorded six videos of herself in her home in Port Hope, Ontario, speaking about the Caravan. Each video was tailored to the challenges the women encountered in six specific cities. Those videos were then released in partnership with the independent bookstore which was originally slated to host Wells’s reading.
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