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/

Abortion rights group welcomes federal law protecting health facilities from protesters but says it’s “way overdue”

Jan 18, 2022

NATIONAL – The Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada (ARCC) welcomes the Jan 17 announcement by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that it is now illegal to intimidate healthcare workers and patients, or obstruct them from providing care or seeking treatment at locations where healthcare services are delivered.

Although the new criminal law was triggered by the aggressive actions of anti-vaccine protesters outside health facilities and COVID-19 vaccination sites, the law applies to protesters at any healthcare facility, including those that provide abortion.

Continued: https://www.arcc-cdac.ca/abortion-rights-group-welcomes-federal-law-protecting-health-facilities-from-protesters-but-says-its-way-overdue/

18.01.2022

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Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada

How the COVID-19 pandemic has affected abortion care in Canada

January 5, 2022
Kate Wahl, Madeleine Ennis

Abortions are common and essential medical procedures; one in three women in Canada have an abortion in their lifetime. Access to this care helps people plan and space out their pregnancies, providing vital benefits to individuals, families and society.

Pandemic-related travel restrictions and facility closures initially jeopardized access to abortion care. However, the pandemic has also become a catalyst for more accessible ways to deliver abortion care, such as providing medical abortions, which are drug-induced rather than surgical, via telemedicine.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/how-the-covid-19-pandemic-has-affected-abortion-care-in-canada-168722

Prescribing the abortion pill without restrictions is safe and effective, study finds

Researchers say Canada's experience offers a roadmap for other countries

Date: December 8, 2021
Source: University of British Columbia

Abortion remains safe after Canada removed restrictions on the medical abortion pill mifepristone in November 2017.

That's one of the key findings from a UBC-led study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Continued: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/12/211208182541.htm

Liberals introduce bill to provide sick pay, ban intimidation of patients and health-care workers

Bill C-3 would make it illegal to intimidate or obstruct health-care workers, patients seeking care

Peter Zimonjic · CBC News
Posted: Nov 26, 2021

The Liberal government has introduced legislation to provide workers in federally regulated sectors with 10 days of sick pay — while also making it an offence to intimidate or prevent patients from seeking care, or to interfere with health professionals trying to deliver it.

Bill C-3, which amends the Criminal Code and the Canada Labour Code, was unveiled today by Labour Minister Seamus O'Regan and Justice Minister David Lametti.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberals-sick-pay-intimidation-health-care-1.6264441

26.11.2021

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anti-choice interference

anti-choice intimidation

anti-choice protesters

Canada – New Conservative MP Lewis to fight Liberal plan to axe charity status for anti-abortion pregnancy centres

Stephanie Taylor, The Canadian Press

Thursday, November 25, 2021

OTTAWA -- Leslyn Lewis, in one of her first acts as an MP
on Parliament Hill, says she plans on inviting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to
a pregnancy centre that risks losing its charity status over opposing abortion.

The newly elected Ontario representative revealed her
plans to a recent crowd of demonstrators who gathered in Ottawa to rally
against the Liberal government's promise to remove charity status for
anti-abortion organizations.

Continued: https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/new-conservative-mp-lewis-to-fight-liberal-plan-to-axe-charity-status-for-anti-abortion-pregnancy-centres-1.5681824

Canada – New Glasgow police investigate alleged breach of bubble zone law after anti-abortion protest

A group demonstrated across from the Aberdeen Hospital on Oct. 3

Taryn Grant · CBC News
Posted: Nov 20, 2021

Police in New Glasgow, N.S., are investigating an alleged breach of a law banning anti-abortion protests near health-care facilities after a demonstration last month that was reportedly approved by one of their officers.

The Campaign Life Coalition held a protest on East River Road across from the Aberdeen Hospital as part of an annual day of "peaceful and prayerful pro-life witness" on Oct. 3.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/new-glasgow-nova-scotia-police-bubble-zone-anti-abortion-1.6255416

Inside the Battle for Better Abortion Access In New Brunswick

Sarah Ratchford, Reader's Digest Canada
Nov 10, 2021

Angie Deveau had planned to spend Boxing Day of 2013 lounging in front of the Christmas tree with her family. Instead, she had morning sickness and found herself rushing back and forth to the bathroom. That evening, after she read her three-year-old son his favourite bedtime story, cuddled him, and kissed his forehead goodnight, Deveau took a pregnancy test. She’d already guessed what it would say: positive.

At the time she was 34 and lived in a house in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Though she shared custody with her son’s father, she was the boy’s primary caregiver and had only her part-time income as a researcher to sustain them both. She made $25 per hour, working 15 hours per week, and had all the bills that everyone does: housing, groceries, clothing, utilities, and on it went.

Continued; https://www.msn.com/en-ca/health/wellness/inside-the-battle-for-better-abortion-access-in-new-brunswick/ar-AAQyxex

Alberta anti-abortion party brings in more than $200K after years of inactivity

Pro-Life Alberta is not aiming to govern but does want to make abortion an election issue

Stephen David Cook · CBC News
Posted: Nov 09, 2021

An anti-abortion party in Alberta that in 2020 had just $30 in the bank has raised nearly $217,000 in contributions this year.

According to Elections Alberta, in the first three quarters of 2021 the Pro-Life Alberta Political Association out-fundraised each of the Wildrose Independence Party, the Alberta Party and the Alberta Liberals.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-anti-abortion-party-reactivation-1.6241553

Canada – Program that stripped summer job funding for groups opposed to abortion upheld by Federal Court

The judge accepted that there were Charter infringements against the applicants, but the harm was 'minimal'

Adrian Humphreys
Oct 25, 2021

A legal challenge of the federal government’s denial of summer job funding for groups that oppose abortion has been dismissed by a Federal Court judge.

The Right to Life Association of Toronto and Area, a registered charity, and a student who lost his chance for a summer job working for it, sued the Minister of Employment, claiming the new rules infringed freedoms of expression and religion and targeted groups that oppose the government’s pro-choice policies.

Continued: https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/program-that-stripped-summer-job-funding-for-groups-opposed-to-abortion-upheld-by-federal-court