The Abortion Caravan : When Women Shut Down Government in the Battle for the Right to Choose

By Karin Wells

A Feminist History Society Book Series

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"One irresistible story from the journey towards women owning their own bodies." - Gloria Steinem

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.

Praise & Recognition

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. Canadian Authors Pick Their Favourite Books of 2020
Wells’s descriptions of political action in the days before social media and #MeToo are at times witty and always fascinating.

Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing 2021 - Short-listed

Ontario Historical Society Award's Alison Prentice Award 2021 - Winner

Details

Publication Date: April 21, 2020

Genre: Adult Nonfiction

Product Format: Paperback

Pages: 392

ISBN: 978-1-77260-125-1

Karin Wells

About the Author

Karin Wells

Karin Wells 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.

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