Calgary women’s rally protests right to abortion in Olympic Plaza

The abortion debate that has erupted in the United States spilled onto the steps of the Olympic Plaza Sunday.

Calgarians gathered at noon to show support for reproductive rights.

Happening now at City Hall, dozens of people are in hand for a reproductive rights rally in response to the possible overturning of Roe v Wade in the US. pic.twitter.com/z83xAlefBS

— Haley Jarmain (@HJarmain) May 15, 2022

One rally attendee says women need to be talking about issues like this.

“I believe that the choice a woman has to make should she ever be in a position to ever have to make that decision is not one that is made lightly, and is one that is made with a lot of thought, a lot of sadness and a lot of tears,” said Wendy Walker, an Indigenous singer.

“I have sat with women who have had to make those awful decisions, who had to have babies or fetuses aborted due to medical (issues).”

Walker says women need to be talking about women’s issues, and that men need to stay out of conservations about a woman’s body. She adds women don’t have any business in men’s issues.

“Men who step up in that they are truly just about the birth, not the follow through. Helping to feed and raise and educate and steer that child into adulthood, they’re not they’re for that. Because then they complain because it’s too much money now these kids end up in foster care or they end up in social services,” she said.

Walker says oftentimes it’s poor women, Indigenous women, or women of color that are faced with tough economic decisions.

“To me it’s really important that women come together and that men come together to support us and stand strong with us as allies,” she said.

Walker says that not everything that happens south of the border will impact Canadians. However, she adds one must also be mindful that some Albertans agree with the decision to ban abortion.

“And so when those folks stand with that decision and have perhaps the ability to make and create policy that will impact my daughters, my granddaughters and your daughter’s ability to make decisions about their own personal health care, we have a problem,” she said. 

Read More:

• Anti-abortion demonstrators meet counter-protesters at Parliament Hill

• Majority of Canadians, only half of Americans support right to an abortion: poll

• Alberta premier responds to pro-choice concerns as U.S. may overturn Roe v. Wade

Walker believes a law or policy must be implemented to secure a woman’s reproductive rights.

“A policy that is put in place that protects women’s rights to determine what happens over our bodies,” she said. “Our bodies are ours, they don’t belong to anybody else and they certainly don’t belong to our male allies.”

The rally comes after the U.S. Supreme court draft opinion was leaked indicating Roe v. Wade may be overturned.

–With files from Haley Jarmain