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I remember the bad old days.

The days when people who staffed abortion clinics risked their safety, day in and day out, to help women in crisis. The days when doctors were shot and stabbed for caring for their patients. The days when those who claimed to value “life” above all had no qualms about using violence, sometimes deadly violence, to advance their cause.

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I remember how proud I was of my husband’s sister, who volunteered to escort terrified Edmonton patients through the phalanx of furious zealots. I remember the horror I felt when an abortion clinic, close to where I’d been living in Toronto, was bombed.

Imagine the courage it took to run that gauntlet of hate, whether it was to go to work or to seek medical help.

Today’s protests are less aggressive, thank goodness. Yet imagine the courage it still takes for a woman in Alberta to make the wrenching personal decision to seek out an abortion — especially given that even today, you can only get one in Edmonton or Calgary.