“Pro-love” group gains momentum, counters controversial anti-abortion protests
Posted Aug 14, 2014 11:06:38 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Dozens of pro-choice, “pro-love” supporters lined the streets outside the Victoria General hospital this morning in a calm, counter response to anti-abortion protesters who sparked controversy earlier this week with graphic signs.
The pro-love rally included people of all ages who wanted to show support for sexual justice.
Joanne MacPherson said she and her daughter drove two hours to be part of today’s crowd.
“I have an eight-year-old daughter, and it’s really important that the criminal code stays out of our wombs, out of our daughters’ wombs,” she said. “It’s really important that women have access to health care.”
MacPherson said she was at the rally in honour of her grandmother, who died during an at-home abortion almost 90 years ago, in 1927.
The pro-love movement was spearheaded by three Halifax women earlier this week, and has grown to well over a hundred supporters in just a few days.
One of the rally’s organizers, Evey Hornbeck, said their main goal is to spread awareness of choices.
“We wanted to organize something more and more people could get involved [in], since it seemed like, from the response we got, so many people really liked the love aspect instead of those really awful, hateful messages that were being spread.”
The controversial anti-abortion signs had featured blown-up images of dead fetuses and bloody unborn babies.
Hornbeck said, since starting the pro-love movement earlier this week, they’ve seen an overwhelming amount of support.
Nearly every rally-goer this morning was sporting a sign with a pink heart painted on it– a symbol that has come to be the logo of the group.
