Join the Star as it makes its way through the city chatting with young Torontonians about the issues they’re watching this federal election. We speak to a young Toronto student about why she thinks reproductive rights need more attention:

Madeline Smart has been going through highlights of the major federal parties’ platforms hoping to find a section on women’s reproductive rights, but it’s never there.

“Maybe people think it’s too small and they just talk about health care in general, but it’s literally half the population; that’s part of our health care that need to be talked about,” says the 21-year-old Centennial College journalism student.

“I feel like women’s reproductive rights is really being left out of that conversation.”

Abortion and reproductive rights in Canada came up in the federal election campaign after Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, who says he is personally pro-life (anti abortion), said his party would not stop MPs from tabling private members’ bills seeking to limit reproductive rights. Scheer has said he would vote against such a bill and does not intend to reopen the abortion debate.

That assurance is not enough for Smart. (The Star spoke with her at a west-end laundromat.)

“I think there’s a good chance if he does get elected that our reproductive rights would be in jeopardy,” she says.

“That’s not something anyone should gamble with.”

The other major federal party leaders have said candidates running for them must be pro-choice (for the right to have an abortion) or defend pro-choice policies.

The issue blew up on Smart’s social media feeds this past summer as several U.S. states began to pass limitations on abortions, challenging a precedent set by the 1973 Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade, in effect, giving women the right to have one, should they choose to.

Even in Canada, anti-choice groups have been showing up at universities and other public places, often with graphic signs decrying abortion.

“Which is what blows my mind, that some people are either uneducated or just so formally against it,” says Smart, who adds that she doesn’t think men, or even women past their reproductive years, should have a say in other people’s reproductive rights.

She says it’s rare to see young anti-choice protesters, although sometimes they show up with their parents.

“It must be an age thing, and I also think obviously religion plays a part in it, as well. Everyone’s free to practise whatever religion they want. They can do whatever they think and believe in whatever they want. But I feel like you can’t let that infringe on other people’s rights,” Smart says.

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She doesn’t just want to see politicians talk of maintaining the right to have an abortion; there are access issues outside big Canadian cities and in the east coast that should be addressed, she says, and birth control shouldn’t be ignored.

“Birth control is expensive. A lot of people don’t realize that. There are different forms of birth control that aren’t covered. Some women don’t like the pill and that’s the easiest one to get,” Smart says.

“One hundred per cent, reproductive rights should be super important in this election. People should be paying more attention.”

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