How Did Vancouver Women's Fight For Reproductive Rights?

Upon my research using the Global Nonviolent Action Database, I came across an interesting case article called, “Vancouver Women’s Caucus fights for reproductive rights (Abortion Caravan), Canada, 1970.” Put simply, although abortions were officially legalized in 1969, the Canadian government immediately made a constitutional amendment to Section 251 of the Criminal Code, which resulted in a severe limitation of women’s access to abortions unless the woman’s health was at risk or if the male-dominated Therapeutic Abortion Committees gave approval. Seeing an increase in abortion-related deaths and injuries, the Vancouver Women’s Caucus and its supporters immediately began to organize demonstrations and formulate the “Abortion Caravan”—a protest campaign that started out at Vancouver and worked its way into Ottawa in order to protest at Parliament Hill. Ultimately, although abortion was not officially removed from the Criminal Code until 1988,
According to the case study, this group of women was so appalled by the decision to amend the Criminal Code that they immediately began to organize and rally local activists and supporters alike. Knowing that access to abortions would now depend on the approval of the male-dominated Therapeutic Abortion Committees or on the fact that the woman’s life was at risk, the Vancouver Women’s Caucus knew that they had to act fast and big, otherwise more and more women would be forced to resort to unsafe, deadly measures to receive abortions. With the hope that their presence would bring about more attention and support, the Vancouver Women’s Caucus quickly organized the “Abortion Caravan”, which essentially entailed several cars riding from Vancouver to Ottawa to protest directly inside Parliament Hill. Although this did not yield the results it intended, the “Abortion Caravan” did, however, receive a backlash from its own