Just three-plus decades.
A horrifying story of a woman needing medical care turned away from a Prince Edward Island hospital.
A clever guerrilla poster campaign featuring a likeness (maybe) of the Island's most famous fictional character.
Bunch of rallies and demonstrations.
A scathing video on abortion access in the Maritimes.
Oh, yeah, and a constitutional challenge.
Today, the government of PEI threw in the towel on abortion.
The Prince Edward Island government announced today that it will not oppose a constitutional challenge to provincial policies regarding access to in-province abortion services.Not only that, Health PEI will open a new women's reproductive health centre that will offer medical and surgical abortions, along with other needed reproductive care.
“Based on legal advice that current policies regarding access to in-province abortion services would likely be in violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, government determined that the most responsible approach is to revise the policy rather than embark on a long and costly court case,” said Premier and Minister of Justice Wade MacLauchlan.
Abortion had been available in PEI until 1982 when two hospitals merged, on the condition from the Catlick one that abortion be banned.
Aaaaand cue the lying liars.
@JustinTrudeau Extremely disappointed that #PEI health practitioners will now be forced to kill babies.
— Mike Schouten (@mike_schouten) March 31, 2016
Nobody is being forced to do anything, Mike, least of all "kill babies."
Access to abortion in Canada is not uniformly good. A government's acknowledgement that denying abortion is a constitutional no-no is a HUGE step forward.
Brava! and Bravo! to all the hard-working, committed, and smart activists who made this happen.
But, of course, there's still much to do.
DAMMIT JANET! has been on PEI's case for ages. Some previous blogposts.
ADDED: Why have I not heard of this blog before? Screaming in All Caps on PEI win.