“What do we do when we are under attack?”
As the question echoed through Bethlehem’s Payrow Plaza, a crowd of hundreds responded with one voice: “Stand up, strike back!” Crowds gathered Friday night for the Bans Off Our Bodies Assembly, organized by the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Women’s March to oppose the Supreme Court’s decision earlier in the day to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The event drew a sea of attendees from diverse gender identities, cultural backgrounds, religious beliefs and places, united under the banner of abortion rights. They came with signs that were both colorful and somber, many of which contained a clothes hanger motif, representative of the pre-Roe era, when illegal abortions were sometimes performed with such household instruments.
Many of the attendees came with family members. Laura Roberts from Roseto brought her 15-year-old daughter; she said the Supreme Court decision was doubly disturbing, as the mother of a young woman. “It’s scary to think that we’re going backwards, that this is the reality that my daughter will inherit,” she said.
Others came with various affinity groups, religious groups in particular showing up en masse to denounce the decision. The Rev. Bonnie Bates, minister of the Northeast Conference of the United Church of Christ, came to support reproductive autonomy, both out of personal conviction and representative of her denominational views.
“I was alive before Roe, and I saw terrible things happen to people I cared about,” Bates said. “I don’t want us to come back at a time when those things happen again.”
Khrys Expósito attended because she said that the right to abortion protected her life. She was previously pregnant with a child who was diagnosed with trisomy 18, a developmental condition also known as Edward’s syndrome, which posed a high risk of the child dying in the womb. If the child were to die in the womb, Exposito would be prone to Toxic Shock Syndrome, a life-threatening complication. She foundling had a late-term abortion, which she credits with saving her life.
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Members of the LGBTQIA+ community spoke out forcefully, many citing Justice Thomas of Clarence’s comment that a reconsideration of same-sex marriage could follow Friday’s decision. According to the Rev. Lindsey Altvater Clifton of the First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem, a self-identified queer clergyman, the decision “has unfairly disproportionate impacts on communities of color and LGBTQIA+ people.”
However, Altvater Clifton noted feelings of hope amid the general anxiety.
“I think the speed at which this many people have responded has helped me believe that we can encourage those in the pew to really get involved as we get closer to the midterms in November and more of the work of defense,” he said.
The midterms were on the minds of several speakers throughout the rally. Lori Vargo Heffner, president of the Northampton County Council, urged protesters to channel her dismay by voting Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro into office come election time.
Speakers also highlighted Bethlehem native Anna Thomas, who is running for state representative in District 37, as an abortion rights advocate.
“I think abortion is a human right, I think it’s a necessary freedom,” Thomas said.
The rally concluded with Shawna Knipper, a member of the executive board of the National Women’s March, stating that the goal of the movement is to permanently codify abortion rights across the country. She urged attendees to fight back, continue organizing protests and generally be “ungovernable” until abortion is enshrined as a fundamental right.
Reference-www.mcall.com