A traditionally pro-life protest extended its focus to include physician assisted death in light of federal legislation, but still saw the same push-back from abortion activists as they have in the past.
The New Brunswick Right to Life Association’s March for Life is an annual event which takes place outside the provincial legislature.
Recent federal rulings in favour of physician assisted death have caught the ire of the group, who typically holds their rally in support of pro-life.
“They’re taking a stand federally so we’re taking a stand provincially,” said Rebecca Procure, Executive Assistant at the NBRLA.
“We have to be able to protect vulnerable people.”
Similar to years past, pro-choice supporters protested the rally, holding signs and chanting throughout the majority of the event.
“It’s about the fact that people need to have reproductive rights and they need to have access to those,” said Abbie Moser, organizer of the pro-choice protest.
Those protesting the rally say abortions aren’t as accessible as they would like, as only a couple areas in the province provide the service. They say talking about it is the only way to see that change.
READ MORE: N.B. provincial government publishes new abortion regulations
“We still don’t have access,” said Moser. “It’s still something that we need and a lot of people don’t remember that.”
Right to Life maintains this year’s event was centred around physician assisted death and not abortion, and that a quick turn around after the Supreme Court ruling kept them from updating their wares.
“For years the only real issue has been the abortion issue so this year when all of a sudden it became about euthanasia and physican assisted suicide it was something where we needed to focus our rally on that,” Procure said.
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