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History Women

The Abortion Caravan

When Women Shut Down Government in the Battle for the Right to Choose

by (author) Karin Wells

Publisher
Second Story Press
Initial publish date
Apr 2020
Category
Women, General, Post-Confederation (1867-)
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781772601251
    Publish Date
    Apr 2020
    List Price
    $24.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781772601268
    Publish Date
    Apr 2020
    List Price
    $16.99
  • Downloadable audio file

    ISBN
    9781772602951
    Publish Date
    Oct 2022
    List Price
    $32.99

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Description

In the spring of 1970, seventeen women set out from Vancouver in a big yellow convertible, a Volkswagen bus, and a pickup truck. They called it the Abortion Caravan. Three thousand miles later, they “occupied” the prime minister’s front lawn in Ottawa, led a rally of 500 women on Parliament Hill, chained themselves to their chairs in the visitors’ galleries, and shut down the House of Commons, the first and only time this had ever happened. The seventeen were a motley crew. They argued, they were loud, and they wouldn't take no for an answer. They pulled off a national campaign in an era when there was no social media, and with a budget that didn't stretch to long-distance phone calls. It changed their lives. And at a time when thousands of women in Canada were dying from back street abortions, it pulled women together across the country.

About the author

Karin Wells was born in the UK, grew up in BC and now lives in south west Ontario. She is best known as a CBC radio documentary maker and is a three time recipient of the Canadian Association of Journalist documentary award. Her work has been heard on radio networks around the world and has been recognized by the United Nations. Wells worked – briefly – as a line worker in a pea factory, a school teacher and an actor. She is also a lawyer and in 2011 was inducted into the University of Ottawa’s Common Law Honour Society.

 

Karin Wells' profile page

Awards

  • Winner, Ontario Historical Society Award's Alison Prentice Award
  • Short-listed, Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing

Editorial Reviews

Wells’s descriptions of political action in the days before social media and #MeToo are at times witty and always fascinating.

Canadian Authors Pick Their Favourite Books of 2020

Wells’s powerful book affirms that such ongoing obstacles to women’s autonomy and reproductive rights are why the Abortion Caravan matters more than ever.

Kerry Clare

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