Abortion is healthcare

Women's Strike Canada is asking strikers and allies from across Canada to stand together in support of women’s right to choose. Join rallies being held at over 30 events June 24, 2024.

Credit: Women’s Strike Canada 2024

I want to cordially invite you to join Women’s Strike Canada 2024 as they declare International Solidarity in Autonomy on Monday, June 24, 2024!

Women and all allies are invited to strike and gather in solidarity on the second anniversary of the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade plunging into peril women’s right to choose and women’s right to healthcare.

Strikers from across Canada will be standing together, at the request of our American sisters, in support of women’s right to choose.

Additionally, Canadians will be striking in solidarity to demand action on the recommendations from the final report of the national inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) and to fight against all forms of domestic and sex-based violence.

If able, supporters are being asked to take the day off work or school to join rallies being held at over 30 events. To find a strike near you: 30 events.

Women’s Strike Canada organizers recognize not everyone has the ability to attend the rallies, so they ask supporters who must work, or are in school, to wear RED in solidarity and adopt the following social actions for at least one day:

·       Don’t spend money at any business that isn’t woman-owned

·       No cooking, cleaning, nor childcare/chauffeuring if you’re safely able

·       Do not perform labour wherever safely possible

·       Allies can sign and share the Federal Petition to enshrine a woman's right to abortion into Canadian Law in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms

·       Share all of these actions on social media

Abortion access in Canada has always been tenuous at best and must never be taken for granted.

While the US relied on Roe v Wade to ensure abortion access, Canada had R. v Morgentaler. The 1988 Supreme Court decision struck down the abortion provision in Canada’s Criminal Code, finding it ran afoul of the Charter’s guarantee of “security of the person.”

Since then, Canada has been without federal laws providing for, or denying access to, abortion. In the absence of regulation, access has varied widely throughout the country with PEI only changing its provincial law in 2016.

While surgical abortion is currently available in every province and territory, it is not available in every city.

Some provinces do not fund abortions provided outside of hospitals while others force patients to pay for services at private clinics or incur other costs to obtain an abortion. These are violations of the Canadian Health Act, under which the federal government has an obligation to intervene.

In January 2017, medication abortion using mifepristone became available under the name Mifegymiso. The cost of the medication is covered for folks with valid provincial or territorial health insurance. There are also national programs that cover the cost of this medication.

Women’s Strike Canada wants to remind everyone in positions of power at all levels of government of the scientifically and medically established fact that abortion is healthcare and that abortion bans only stop safe abortions.

Organizers are asking women to bring their stories and protest signs to ensure Canada has not one more lost woman and not one more unwanted babe.

In a mere three weeks, Shauna Baty, national co-lead Women’s Strike Canada, and sister organizers have organized over 30 cross country events, built a new website and attracted over 5,000 Facebook followers as well as several hundred followers on Instagram.

At that point Baty, “wanted to try something that would help motivate our ever-growing national team,” she told Small Change via email.

“I arranged a Zoom meeting with Dani Goodwin, the Founder of the Women’s Strike 2024 in the US. Together we made a plea to the other world organizers to come and join us for the first-ever world-wide zoom to unite all the countries in one common cause, the protection of women's right to have agency over their bodies,” Baty wrote.

Hamilton, Ontario will be holding space in the forecourt of City Hall from 11:30 am to 1 pm to remind politicians just how many women affect their positions of power and to demand politicians put their energy into generating access and ensuring education and research for women’s healthcare.

Lindsay Ryan, Women’s Strike Hamilton organizer, wants folks to know, “We welcome anyone to demonstrate and strike with us who believes in abortion access and who strives to end gender-based violence, including directing funds towards the MMIW.”

Speeches beginning at noon will offer perspective, information and a call-to-action followed by a march for those who are able to participate ending back at City Hall.

“We recognize that for many this may be their first time attending a demonstration and for others this may feel like a battle they already had to fight. We anticipate a range of experience with demonstrating and want to provide a safe and inclusive environment from the beginning,” shared Ryan.

Women’s Strike 2024 is intended to provide support for Sisters in the US who have had their rights stripped away and are suffering under dangerous life-threatening conditions.

Ryan maintains, “There are many steps forward that we can take in Canada to ensure access and to increase access. And groups like the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada (ARCC) are already doing that kind of work. What we really want is to shift the complacency that Canadians have about our rights and freedoms. Whatever we believe or have been taught – they are not inalienable. It is more important than ever to engage in the democratic process – which extends beyond just a voting day once every few years. Get engaged locally with riding associations, with demonstrations, and with city councillors. Vote with your wallet by carefully choosing where and how to spend money. Look to your circle of control and your circle of influence and see where you can make a difference.”

Ryan says Hamilton is a great city that has demonstrated itself to be socially minded and politically engaged. She envisions a Hamilton where medical professionals offer respectful and comprehensive care.

Ryan points out that Hamilton is home to McMaster with well known medical and nursing programs as well as Hamilton Health Sciences and St. Joseph’s hospitals that provide wonderful medical care along with McMaster Family Practice.

“I have heard positive stories and I have heard stories where harm was done. We need our medical professionals to be educated and to practice in an intersectional, culturally responsive, socially just, and comprehensive way. As Hamiltonians, I ask that you require of your medical teams, bodily autonomy, informed consent and informed choice,” Ryan told Small Change via email.

Ryan attributes the fast pace with which Women’s Strike Hamilton was able to accomplish so much within just a few weeks to their amazing planning team as well as the fundamental importance of women’s rights and how precarious those rights feel during these uncertain political times.

According to Baty, “Abortion, in particular, is not to be subjected to nor scrutinized by lawmakers and politicians. Instead, abortion is to remain in the hands of our healthcare system giving women full autonomy and agency over their bodies.”

Sign and share the Federal Petition to enshrine a woman's right to abortion into Canadian Law in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Remember to check your email after signing because federal petitions require verification. 

Women’s Strike Canada 2024

Find a strike near you

Women’s Strike Hamilton

#womensstrike2024 #womensstrikehamilton #abortionishealthcare #universalabortionaccess #mybodymychoice

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