In 1970 a group of women travelled across Canada demanding the freedom to choose and the repealing of all abortion laws. Eighteen years later they accomplished their mission. The time has come to make visible what is being chosen and on May 29th a group of survivors will launch the New Abortion Caravan. The young men and women who make up this group are survivors who want to “save those in the present from what killed those in the past”.
WeNeedaLAW.ca supports the New Abortion Caravan and we encourage you to watch the video and read the press release sent out by CCBR this morning.
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May 22, 2012: For Immediate Release
Anti-Abortion Activists Highjack Abortion Rights’ Pet Project
Younger Generation Rises Up with Jaw-Dropping, Bloody Abortion Campaign
May 22, 2012. Young adults with the anti-abortion group, Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform have released details today about their plan to take a project once used to advance abortion rights, the 1970 Abortion Caravan, and to instead abolish abortion with their own spin-off: The New Abortion Caravan.
In one week’s time, 20-plus young people ranging in ages from 19-36 will be driving box-bodied trucks with 7-foot tall and 22-foot wide posters of aborted children, demonstrating on street corners with similar graphics, and circulating postcards at peoples’ homes. They are starting their campaign in Vancouver on May 29, travelling across the country and ending in Ottawa on Canada Day.
CCBR’s executive director Stephanie Gray explained the historical significance of her group’s tour: “We have taken the sacred cow of Canada’s abortion rights movement and are using it to advance the cause for pre-born children.”
The group’s announcement comes after the circulation of a mysterious teaser video two weeks ago, with a riddle that left groups on both sides of the debate confused: “It once signaled the coming of a great injustice. Now it will make the invisible victims visible.”
The answer? The (New) Abortion Caravan.
In 1970, a group of radical pro-abortion feminists gathered outside the Vancouver Art Gallery to start a cross-country trek to Ottawa. They had two goals: 1) Repeal of the abortion laws, and 2) Free abortion on demand. 18 years later, they got what they wanted with the Supreme Court’s Morgentaler decision.
In a master’s thesis on the 1970 Abortion Caravan, Francis Wasserlein writes, “The Abortion Caravan brought into the homes of the vast majority of newspaper-reading, television-viewing Canadians the reality of abortion in a manner unprecedented in Canada.” The New Abortion Caravan will do the same, says Gray, but she pointed out that the focus will not be on choice in the abstract sense, but on what is being chosen.
Gray explained the historical significance of her group’s use of the opposition’s tactics: “Last year, we announced our new EndtheKilling plan to eradicate abortion from our country in our lifetime. We have given ourselves an 18-year deadline to achieve justice for the pre-born. Our journey will begin with how the opposition began: With a caravan. They did graphic, bloody dramatizations of illegal abortions. We will demonstrate with graphic, bloody images showing the reality of all abortions.”
Gray said her group believes women in crisis need help but that abortion isn’t the solution: “Abortion doesn’t make a poor woman rich,” she said, “Nor does it unrape the rape victim. And it certainly doesn’t turn the frog of a boyfriend into a prince. So if we truly want to help women, we need to eliminate a woman’s crisis, not exterminate a woman’s child.”
The project is sure to cause significant controversy. One of their images shows a 24-week aborted fetus with the caption, “If sex-selection abortions are wrong, why not all abortions?” Another shows a 9-week aborted fetus next to a pregnant woman lighting a cigarette, with the caption, “Cigarettes Hurt Babies. Abortions Kill Them”.
Gray defended the group’s approach saying, “The pictures of abortion are shocking because abortion is shocking. The images are disturbing because killing a child is a disturbing thing.”
Gray said that besides displaying bloody images and debating the public, they will do presentations in each community they go to.