Pro-choice rally held at U.S. consulate in Toronto in wake of Roe vs. Wade overturn
Dozens of people gathered outside the U.S. consulate in downtown Toronto Saturday to protest a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court to overturn constitutional protection for abortion rights.
Protester carried placards and chanted slogans to protest the decision, which overturns the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case, which legalized abortion.
The decision is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half of U.S. states.
Speaking with CP24 outside the consulate, the chair of Democrats Abroad Canada said she’s worried about what the move means for women’s health and freedoms.
She said she greeted the decision Friday with anger and fear but that has since turned to action.
“We’re mobilizing, we’re registering voters, we’re finding those Americans that are here,” Erin Kotecki Vest said, pointing out that there are more than half a million Americans living in Canada who are eligible to vote in the U.S.
She said the primary goal of the protest is to raise awareness about the decision.
“We need to get more people aware of what’s going on and to get those Americans that are here in Canada registered to vote because that’s the only thing that’s going to change this,” Kotecki Vest said. “Canadians voting and Americans voting, that’s the number one thing to do.”
She said while Canadians and Americans living here tend to feel insulated from the abortion debate south of the border, people should not take their freedoms for granted.
“One of the reasons we love living in Canada so much is that we think we don’t have to fear what’s happening south of the border, that we can kind of skirt that a little. But as you’ve seen it’s starting to creep up,” she said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.