B.C. nurse 'heartbroken' over U.S. abortion ruling highlights ways to support Canadian reproductive rights

A nurse and sexual health educator from Nanaimo, B.C., says she's "heartbroken" about the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn its Roe V. Wade ruling, allowing for individual states to ban abortions.

Friday's vote could trigger abortion bans in roughly half of all U.S. states.

"I almost didn't believe it when I saw," said Nanaimo nurse Kassidy Delcaro. "It's really heartbreaking for everybody involved – all the providers, all the patients, it's heartbreaking."

Delcaro says the U.S. Supreme Court's decision won't stop women from getting abortions, but it will stop safe abortions from happening.

She added that the ruling will disproportionally impact minorities as well.

"I think it's just an overall feeling of powerlessness and loss of control that we're feeling right now," she said.

"As the world has continued we've gained a lot of rights [for women] in a lot of ways, but the fact that there's this really big one that they took away so easily, it's scary," said Delcaro.

The Nanaimo nurse says she's also concerned that the ruling endorses a sentiment that abortions are immoral.

"It's kind of giving [supporters] confirmation that it is wrong," she said. "It's the 21st century, it's ridiculous that I'm speaking here."

While the ruling was only made official Friday morning, Delcaro says there's already a local website which has resources on how to support and improve reproductive rights in Canada.

The website is home to what it calls the B.C. Reproductive Justice Manifesto, which lays out ways the provincial and federal governments could improve access, funding and protection for abortion and contraceptive services in B.C. and Canada.

"There's a lot of different things you can sign, a lot of differing organizations you can sign up for," said Delcaro.

"I think just knowing that there's a huge amount of people in a lot of different groups, and lot of different people and providers who are going to keep fighting for this right [is important]," she said.