The Back to Life walkers were a group of 25 women making the trek from Montreal to Ottawa on foot to protest abortion. Their t-shirts proved to be too much for Parliamentary security. In the words of one of the walkers,
As we left the press gallery, security at the desk told us that we may not enter the building wearing our shirts or jackets, and they escorted us out the door. They weren’t happy with us!
Here’s the photo of them. Anyone know anything about parliamentary security standards? This strikes me as unreasonable, but I can’t claim to know much about how things typically go.
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“A woman’s right to bodily autonomy outweighs fetal pain because we live in a society that does not force people to use their bodies to support others — not their organs, not their bone marrow, not their blood, not their skin. We do not force people to sacrifice parts of their bodies to save others not because we don’t care about a patient’s pain, but because we recognize that bodily autonomy is an essential part of a functioning free society. To suggest that we ignore that and make an exception when it comes to forcing pregnant women carry a pregnancy to term suggests that we force pregnant women to submit to a violation of their rights that we impose on no one else.”
This is from the Parliament of Canada website:
“Participating in any form of demonstration is prohibited, including applauding or wearing clothing with visible political messages.”
So, yeah, I guess it was par for the course.
I didn’t encounter any talk by the Back to Life walkers or those in the March for Life that had to do with forcing people to do anything. Amy speaks of our society as not forcing people to use their bodies to support others. I know I like to support others and I am glad other people like to support others. I think it is good that we are not ‘forced’ to use our bodies as support for others and when we do we do so by free choice – the more the better and I guess this could be called choosing life for others – commendable. The Back to Life walkers and Silent No More are choosing to focus on support, educationally and practically, for pregnant women. A pregnant woman is a special woman as she is carrying another. The work that these groups and many others present at this march offer are support for a pregnant women. To speak of; ‘force’, ‘rights’, ‘autonomy’, ‘free society’ and seemingly equate the pregnancy to skin or blood is to miss something – a woman is pregnant and is carrying another and needs support.