Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

For the past several decades, conservative forces in the US and Canada have worked to finance and organize Christian fundamentalist sects, the Catholic Church and other organizations to become potentially destabilizing of progressive democratic principles and practices. Powerful interlocking political and corporate forces are seemingly teaming up against women and the disadvantaged in many Southern and Western states and in parts of Canada. These forces have negative effects on women's ability to control and maintain bodily integrity and health, especially among low income women who often are disproportionately affected by restrictions on abortion services. What ought to happen regarding access to these services? The speakers will shed light on the pertinent issues and argue that it’s urgent to coordinate and democratically empower individuals, organizations, communities and all levels of Government to produce changes in attitudes, norms, behaviour and policies that will enable women, using their own free