Rallies in Eastern Quebec for the right to abortion

About 75 people rallied in front of the Rimouski courthouse at lunchtime to support women’s right to control their bodies.

Several of them wore black, bereaved about the right to abortion removed from the American Constitution.

We demonstrate our solidarity with our American sisters and also to show our elected officials that this kind of setback [face à l’avortement] remains completely unacceptable exclaims Mélina Castonguay, midwife and co-founder of the organization Les Passeuses.

During the rallies, the demonstrators took part in discussions and were able to attend readings of poems and committed speeches.

Demonstrations were organized by the Quebec Federation for Planned Births (FQPN) in several other cities in the province, including Montreal, Quebec, Sherbrooke and Gatineau.

Access to abortion difficult in Gaspésie

In Gaspé, around 30 people gathered in front of city hall to express their anger and indignation. The group is of the opinion that the fight for abortion is still not over since access to surgery remains complicated in Eastern Quebec.

Léa Blouin-Rodrigue, one of the organizers of the gatherings in Gaspé and Carleton-sur-Mer, explains that the Gaspé hospital is the only one to offer surgery on the entire territory of the peninsula.

She is also sorry that the Rimouski hospital is the nearest health facility for Gaspé women who wish to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, which forces them to travel great distances, she said.

” We are therefore talking about unequal access in the region. Everyone has access to it, but not in the same way. It forces people to travel and take time off to use it because of the complications of distance. »

However, the abortion pill is available almost everywhere in the territory, such as in the hospitals of Chandler, Sainte-Anne-des-Monts and the Magdalen Islands. But not all doctors can prescribe it, since they must first have undergone training in this regard. Léa Blouin-Rodrigue considers that the mandatory training to prescribe it remains a barrier to its accessibility.

Mélina Castonguay agrees. To my knowledge, no other type of medication requires so much training to administer. Meetings and discussions are in progress to take advantage of this window which opens on abortion to facilitate this access by medicine. she adds.

These courses are requested by the College of Physicians (CMQ) to ensure that all persons who wish to consult a physician practicing in the field of pregnancy termination receive quality servicescan we read on their website.

With information from Jean-François Deschênes