By Cheryl Jahn

Reproductive rights rally highlights bigger issue

Nov 14, 2024 | 3:49 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – “My Body, My Rights” and “Abortion is a Right” are just a couple of the signs that graced a reproductive rights rally held adjacent to the hospital as part of the Inspiring Women Among Us event on this week.

“We are in a feminist backlash and women of colour will tell you that it’s not just like a feminist backlash, but it is also a lot of like racism and misogyny, which is really impacting everybody,” says Tanvi Guhagarkar, Executive Director of the Northern Women’s Centre at UNBC. “And I think that people are finding this and are starting to come out and start defending reproductive rights and are having important discussions.”

A number of drivers passing by honked horns in support that support is growing more now than ever. As is the awareness of the issues. And given today’s political climate, it’s a timely discussion.

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“I think it’s a lot of factors, really. One obvious factor is what happened in the US recently with the election of President Trump. There is a lot of paranoia now. There’s a lot of fear around reproductive rights, political changes are happening not just in the US, but they’re also happening globally.”

In 2022, the US Supreme Court repealed the long-standing Roe vs Wade which protected a woman’s right to access an abortion. And that decision has opened the floodgates politically.

“Just removing that right from the United States begins not only to be a really serious issue for the women there, but also starts to exert pressure north of the border as well,” says Dawn Hemingway, Professor Emerita with the School of Social Work at UNBC. “And now we have the the election in the States on top of everything else.”

She says the issue of reproductive rights will likely be topical in the upcoming federal election. But the event focussed not just on reproductive rights but reproductive justice. “In order to have a choice, you need to have some social capital, which is not equal for all people in our society. And thus reproductive justice becomes important because it looks at more factors like ‘Can I can I not have abortion, but access to abortion, access to birth control, access to proper healthcare, access to IVF, access to contraception. So all of these things together make up reproductive justice.”

And Guhagarkar says violating reproductive rights happen in vastly different forms around the world. It is not strictly a North American issue.