So, you think it won’t happen here in Canada? Maintaining the status quo is sufficient protection for the reproductive rights of Canadian women? If so, we disagree.

For one thing, there are ZERO federal laws governing access to abortion in Canada. The Mulroney-led PCs attempted to enshrine women’s reproductive rights into Canadian law in the 1980s, but no political consensus led to ‘decriminalization’ – no woman could be prosecuted for seeking an abortion for any reason, and no physicians were obligated to perform them.

It could happen anywhere. It really could.

We can pretend it's American exceptionalism biting itself in the face, or we can acknowledge that our freedom to choose is tolerated where we live, too, and not actively supported.

We're expected not to talk about it for their comfort.

— Abby (@abbythetweet) May 3, 2022

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Abortion should be a matter for the states to decide

Believe it or not, that’s pretty much how Canada views abortion, too. Because there is a lack of political will to enact any laws protecting women at the federal level, and because healthcare in Canada is under provincial jurisdiction as it is, any province could enact anti-abortion legislation tomorrow, and no federal laws exist to maintain access.

In 2013 I got pregnant with triplets but we had no idea that one was growing in my Fallopian tube. One night it burst open and I lost over 1/2 of the blood in my body and was very close to death. I needed emergency surgery and a d&c. If not for #RoeVWade I’d be dead.

— Grey DeLisle (@GreyDeLisle) May 3, 2022

Access to abortion services are not only FAR more needed than many would believe (one in four women in their lifetimes, bros), access is already dismal in parts of this country. Right now. Today. In 2012, New Brunswick was thisfuckingclose to closing their ONLY public clinic, and still refuses to consider abortion a medical procedure covered under provincial healthcare unless it’s an emergent procedure done in hospital.

Access to abortion is an equality issue. The constitutions of both the US and Canada are supposed to guarantee equality but clearly don’t. Class and gender. Both. Forcing anyone to carry a child to term is the same as telling them the laws we have, that guarantee them equal rights, are silly little meaningless words that set women back in employment, financial stability, even their personal health. Having a baby could kill you EVEN NOW – not just 400 years ago – and a woman should have every imaginable right to decide whether or not her body will be put at risk of death for a child she cannot afford to keep. No conservative province or state will be willing to support her financially, physically, or emotionally during her pregnancy, because no conservative province or state ever has – unless they were forced to.)

For anyone who'd like to tell me this stat can't be trusted, here's where it's from:https://t.co/HFMcQYteqK

— Abby (@abbythetweet) May 3, 2022

The CPC used abortion as a wedge issue several times before Harper was defeated by the Trudeau Libs – who’ve used abortion as a wedge issue themselves, not unlike the federal NDP, and even the Greens ffs (the division in the party hinges on Elizabeth May, a social conservative, being its most politically-savvy member.) And yet, the lack of any laws remains status quo, without the political will to actually protect women’s reproductive rights (or destroy them).

But if RoeVWade is struck down in the US, will we not see the political winds shift north of the border, as we so often do with other issues? What if they shift enough that the next leader of the CPC finds it politically advantageous to bring it up again? What if, in Justin Trudeau affirming his support for women’s reproductive rights this morning on Twitter, the bot farms drag the Neanderthals out by their knuckles and this becomes a boon for political fundraising for all parties? It’s not like this has never happened before, and isn’t happening now, in Canadian politics.

The right to choose is a woman’s right and a woman’s right alone. Every woman in Canada has a right to a safe and legal abortion. We’ll never back down from protecting and promoting women’s rights in Canada and around the world.

— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) May 3, 2022

Pretending it can’t happen here is how it more likely WILL happen here. Not talking about it does favours for politicians seeking the path of least resistance to election or re-election, and nothing for the Canadians they want to lead.