Abortion-rights protesters rally in front of Old State Capitol in Springfield
A raucous group of protesters gathered at the Old State Capitol Plaza Saturday to urge lawmakers and courts to protect abortion rights following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to push abortion laws back to the realm of state government.
The Bans Off Our Bodies Roe Reaction Rally was organized by a coalition of local advocacy groups — Planned Parenthood Illinois Action, Black Lives Matter Springfield, the Springfield-Decatur Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, the Springfield Area League of Women Voters and the Resister Sisterhood — to show people's disdain at the conservative-leaning court's decision to end the protections of Roe v.
Wade while also organizing them for the fight to come in November at the ballot box and beyond.
Similar to the Resister Sisters' last rally for increased gun control, protesters showed up with creative signs and with anger and frustration at the lack of action taken to protect the rights of people requesting reproductive health services.
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Many of the speakers were anxious for some kind of positive momentum. Rianne Hawkins, director of advocacy and campaigns for Planned Parenthood, said that court's decision robbed people of a fundamental right and of their choice to make the right decision for them on pre-natal care.
"We are outraged that the Supreme Court has disregarded (nearly) 50 years of precedent and stripped away the constitutional right to an abortion," Hawkins said. "It robs people of the power to control their own bodies, their lives and their future — not just for this generation, but for generations to come."
Many of the assembled speakers told heart-wrenching stories regarding the importance not just of the right to choose, but the right for people to have privacy in that choice.
Linda Wheal, who worked in the reproductive health care field for 45 years, spoke about an unusual situation in which she discovered that she was pregnant after she had a tubal ligation following the birth of her second child, saying that her example was why protecting reproductive rights was so important.
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"Since both of my pregnancies were high-risk, we decided not to have any more children," Wheal said. "So, I had a tubal ligation sterilization procedure following my second delivery. Six months later, I found out I was pregnant.
"It's just one more example of why safe, legal abortions must be included in our comprehensive health care coverage. My Christian faith leads me to not be hateful or pass judgement, but to be kind, understanding and to trust others in their decisions."
Resister Sister Abbey Edwards said that her conservative family would not have approved of many of the choices that she made in her life.
"Last time I checked, human rights are not a belief system," Edwards said. "I'm not kidding, everyone (in my family) except for me believes that human rights are a sometimes-but-only-if topic circumstance. That's sad. We matter."
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Randy Elble, a professor of pharmacology at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, encouraged people to elect pro-choice politicians up and down the ballot, saying that it was important not to return to a time in which abortions and other reproductive procedures were filled with danger.
"The old laws against abortion were overturned not because of some sudden legal insight, (but) because they caused tragedy in family after family," Elble said. "People finally had enough, but those wise people are mostly gone now. The people who reversed Roe have no idea what they have done."
It was a day for people both old enough to know of a time before and during Roe — such as Wheal and Elble — and for those who will have to navigate a world after it, such as Emma Appelt, an 11-year-old Riverton Middle School student who said that at her age, she shouldn't be concerned about who will make decisions about her health in the future.
"I don't want to be an 11-year-old who has to worry about her rights," Appelt said.
Contact Zach Roth: (217) 899-4338; ZDRoth@gannett.com; @ZacharyRoth13
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Abortion protest attended at Old State Capitol in Springfield
