This weekend, we had the honour of planting 100,000 flags on the lawn of the Supreme Court of Canada to draw attention to the ongoing injustice of abortion in Canada. The sea of pink and blue flags is a humbling and sobering experience, as we consider that each flag represents one pre-born child whose life was taken, unprotected by our law. It is also a valuable opportunity to make visible those our society would like to forget.

We chose the Supreme Court location for the display because this is the court that struck down Canada’s abortion law in the 1988 Morgentaler ruling. This is also the Court that looked to Parliament to create a new law protecting “fetal interests,” or pre-born human rights. Parliament has failed to do that. This display and location gave a wonderful starting point for conversations, as we explained to people what happened at the Court and could then literally point to Parliament, within view, as we talked about the laws we would like to see enacted.

The far-reaching and devasting impact of abortion was evident on Saturday, as those going by somberly considered this ongoing injustice in Canada. This included one young couple who asked to plant their own flags. It also included one young woman who talked about being the daughter of a sexual assault survivor.

It was a beautiful opportunity to see hearts and minds changed about the status quo on abortion. So many people we talked to were unaware that Canada has no law restricting abortion, and our conversations affirmed polls, which say the majority of Canadians support some restrictions on abortion.

More than 60 volunteers joined us from various parts of Ontario to plant the pink and blue flags (truth be told, we didn’t fit the full 100,000 flags on that lawn and had to keep some in the boxes – that alone is a sad testimony to just how many lives have been taken). Many stayed all day to engage with their fellow Canadians on the issue of abortion, and help with clean up at the end of the day.

In Canada, we consistently see our leaders try to shut down debate about abortion and the humanity of the pre-born. But our experience continues to be that most Canadians are open to the discussion in a way our leaders are not. Our lack of laws is not reflective of Canadians, but is due to Parliament’s inaction. For this reason, we continue to talk to Canadians and to visibly display the massive number of lives lost to abortion each year.

Taking a page out of federal Liberal leader Justin Trudeau’s playbook, Mr. Gallant continues to misinterpret the law. This morning Premier Gallant was quoted as saying that he is eliminating Regulation 84-20 “in order to respect our legal obligations under the Supreme Court of Canada ruling and the Canada Health Act.”

But Mr. Gallant is misinformed. The Supreme Court has never ruled that it is illegal for the provinces to implement safeguards and regulations for medical procedures.

In addition to misinterpreting the law, Mr. Gallant is also willfully putting vulnerable women at risk. Lowering the standards and safeguards by, for example, removing the requirement for a specialist to perform the procedure, cannot be considered ‘pro-woman’.

The Canada Health Act R.S.C., 1985, c. C-6 only requires that medically necessary services performed by a physician be provincially funded. Prior to today’s announcement the government of New Brunswick had restricted the use of taxpayer dollars for the purposes of abortion. Abortion is an elective surgery, and thus medically unnecessary – hence the moniker “pro-choice”. Abortion is one choice of many available to women with unplanned pregnancies.

Weakening the requirements whereby an abortion can be carried out will increase the likelihood of abuse by unscrupulous doctors who might approve an abortion on the basis of patient request rather than true medical necessity.