Roughly 60 people gathered at King’s Square in uptown Saint John early Sunday afternoon for a pro-choice rally aimed at standing in solidarity after the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the United States Supreme Court on June 24.
“It was a very nice, well-knitted event,” said rally co-organizer Samantha Edwards in an interview after the rally.
Edwards said she and Kailey Power decided to host the event because they felt Canada is not immune to the decisions made in the USA. She said there is concern around the state of abortion access — especially in New Brunswick.
“We are the most restrictive province in Canada right now,” said Edwards.
“Every other province in Canada, you would be able to have an out-of-hospital abortion, and our province still is refusing to fund out-of-hospital hospital abortions, so only three of our hospitals in New Brunswick can legally [perform] abortions.”
During the demonstration, supporters delivered speeches to bring awareness to the cause, with one speaker sharing their experiences from inside New Brunswick’s foster care system.
“She said it’s very oversaturated, especially in this province, and that there is a lot of abuse and neglect going on in that system,” said Edwards. “It’s very underfunded as well, so to give women these subpar options, other than having an abortion, it’s just not ethical.”
Edwards said both provincial and federal governments have a lot of work to do. She calls on the New Brunswick government to “take more responsibility” and provide funding to private clinics, allowing them to perform out-of-hospital abortions.
“Start funding the private clinics, start funding out-of-hospital abortions and stop making New Brunswickers make expensive travel arrangements to go to places like Moncton when usually people don’t have the means to do that,” said Edwards.
“We need to take accountability, and I think it’s about that time.”
Saint John-Rothesay Member of Parliament Wayne Long said on social media that he is proud to stand in solidarity after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“Let’s never think this can’t happen in Canada,” he wrote on Facebook.
Edwards said there are plans to host another pro-choice rally in September.
“Hopefully, we’ll have more registered speakers and have a few nurses come up to speak as well,” she said.
