Anti-abortion protesters march on legislature

About 100 people gathered outside the Charlottetown legislature Thursday to participate in the 2012 National March for Life.

The March was part of a national day of protest.

Thousands of people marched on Parliament Hill in Ottawa Thursday to urge Prime Minister Stephen Harper to reopen the debate on abortion in Canada.

Harper has said he won't open the abortion debate.

Members of the crowd protesting at the local rally included people from P.E.I. Right to Life, the Knights of Columbus, and the Catholic Women's League.

David Abbott from the Knights of Columbus took the opportunity to speak out against Canada's abortion laws.

"Without a genuine respect for human life and the natural family, the Canadian social fabric will continue to disintegrate.  It is a fallacy to believe that a nation can legally and willfully destroy it's own people without also destroying itself," he said.

Abortions are not performed on the Island, and women who want to get abortions must travel out-of-province at their own cost – but, the province pays for the procedure if it's done in a hospital with a doctor's referral.  

While the rally here was smaller than others across the country, members of this march told CBC News they would defend P.E.I.'s status as Canada's lone holdout in providing abortion.

"I have pointed out to them that they have no right to do this because it is not a health issue, it is a death issue," said protestor Hubert Pierlot.

Tasha MacDonald brought her new baby to the rally.

"Just 6 weeks ago she was in my womb and you know I care about her rights now, but I also cared about her rights when she was inside me and so I want to speak to Canadians to say, she was a person then, she is a person now," MacDonald said.

She said, "Life starts at conception."