Anti-abortion protesters in Fairlawn celebrate likely end of Roe v. Wade amid taunts

A few feet of sidewalk divided the abortion debate Sunday afternoon at Croghan Park in Fairlawn.

Under the shade of a freshly sprouted field maple tree, 18-year-old Constance Hairston and Right to Life of Northeast Ohio summoned about 30 anti-abortion protesters to march toward Summit Mall while carrying signs and pushing strollers as the thermometer crept above 80 degrees.

Hairston, who got married last month and plans to graduate from Copley High School next month, spoke louder and louder as she talked about the spiritual torment her mother experienced after an abortion in the early 1990s, about a decade before she or her brother were born. She talked about how her dad asked her mom to abort her, and how her mother suffered psychological and physical abuse when she decided to have and raise her children alone.

As Hairston's passion grew more visible, a dozen counterprotesters from Akron chanted even louder, occasionally injecting a vulgarity-laced heckle. Along Sand Run Parkway, cars beeped their horns every minute in support — for either side.

The state of the abortion debate has reached a fever pitch with heated confrontations among strangers, acquaintances and even family members, the groups said.

Leading the abortion-rights counterprotesters was a young person who sang with Hairston in the same section of their high school choir. The former classmate would not give their name to a reporter, though they and a colleague identified themselves as part of Serve the People Akron, a group of progressive community activists.

Hairston and her former classmate would occasionally chat during the Sunday protests. Polite smiles were exchanged as the two returned to their respective camps.

“We are treated as a monolith,” Hairston told her group of anti-abortion protesters. “If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s some examples of statements that I’ve heard: ‘It won’t end at abortion, ladies. They’re coming for birth control. They won’t stop here. They want to repeal interracial marriage and ban gay marriage.’

“That’s kind of funny because I’m married to a white man,” Hairston said.

“’They just don’t want women to have autonomy. For them, it’s not about the baby. They just want control,’” Hairston continued, regurgitating things she’s heard the other side say about her. “And the ever-classic: ‘I don’t understand why people feel like they need to push their religion on others.’

“I often ask myself, who is they?” she asked, rhetorically. “They’re certainly not talking about me. If that was all you ever heard about the pro-life movement, you’d think we were all unreasonable, white, straight male Puritanical Christians who just can’t stand anyone who’s not like us making their own choices.”

Abortion restrictions pass with Roe set to fall

Local rallies, often in support of abortion, have been organized this past week in the Greater Akron area since a leaked draft opinion affirmed suspicions that the Supreme Court is poised to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

Hairston’s was a small gathering to celebrate the political winds blowing in their favor in Ohio and to push new abortion restriction over the finish line in the General Assembly.

In anticipation of the Supreme Court revisiting the 1973 ruling that guaranteed the national right to abortion, state legislatures have raced in opposite directions, enacting laws that protect or criminalize access to abortion. Without the national standard secured by Roe, states could decide whether to allow or restrict abortion.

In 2019, when Gov. Mike DeWine signed a law outlawing abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, a Quinnipiac poll found that 61% of Ohioans supported the 1973 ruling and 52% opposed the heartbeat bill, which could take effect if and when Roe is overturned this summer.

Ohio Republican lawmakers have now introduced trigger laws in both chambers of the General Assembly. The laws also would take effect if and when Roe falls, outlawing abortion in Ohio except to save the life of the mother.

The ban would run contrary to public opinion. In addition to the 22% supporting unfettered access to abortion in 2019, another 33% supported access to abortion in most cases.

Abortion-inspired anti-abortion protest

Hairston said she's been attending "pro-life protests" since she was 16 for more personal than political reasons.

As she told her story to a reporter, her former classmate from choir class trolled the event by shouting, "Donald Trump came out of the womb to defeat the deep state and save aborted fetuses."

"That's my way of being funny," the counterprotester said after agreeing to be quiet long enough for the reporter to talk to Hairston.

In seventh grade, Hairston said, her mother, Kelly Burros, began to open up to her about why her father wasn't in the picture.

"She went through a lot of physical and emotional abuse, mainly starting when she was pregnant with me," Hairston said. "While she was pregnant with me, my dad told her to abort me because he just didn't want me. But my mom thought that my life was valuable enough that she was going to do it all on her own."

In Ohio the year Hairston was born, 34,242 pregnancies were aborted.

"A lot of people aren't here to say that their mom gave them that chance," said Hairston. "And so I'm just here speaking for those people."

Burros, who was at the event, also told her daughter she was forced by her parents to abort a pregnancy when she was 16.

"It was a very depressing time in my life," said Burros, who is now 47. "I was 16 years old and I got pregnant. It was not a planned pregnancy. We come from a very religious family, and my parents wanted the best for me and my brother. So, my parents felt it was in the best interest for me to abort the pregnancy.

"My mom will say to this day that that was the worst decision she ever made for me," she said.

In the 12 years after the abortion, Burros said she struggled to get pregnant and miscarried when she did. "I felt that God had punished me almost," she said.

Then she had her son and, 10 months later, her only daughter, Constance.

The other side

As Hairston and about 35 anti-abortion protesters headed toward the mall, the other side followed closely behind with a bullhorn, radio, signs and a clothes hanger.

"We wanted people to see that the other side is here," said Hairston's former classmate, who walked with 11 other counterprotesters behind the anti-abortion group to the Summit Mall and back. At one point, the more vocal counterprotesters were sandwiched between the anti-abortion protesters, making it impossible for an observer to understand who the honking motorists were supporting.

The young person leading the counterprotest said they view opposition to abortion as a means of keeping poor people poor.

"It's not like I have an issue against her, specifically," the counterprotester said of Hairston. "The way that I see it is more of a class issue ... The rich will still be able to get abortions. They'll be able to fly out their kids who accidentally get pregnant to get an abortion.

"A big way that we're divided is by class," they continued. "But people have made it seem like, 'Oh, it's by color, it's by if you're a woman or not a woman, or things like that.' A big reason for one of these (counterprotests) is to start gathering momentum."

A fellow abortion-rights supporter held a sign that said Nov. 8 is coming, referencing a potential voter backlash to restrictive state laws.

"Once the children are born, they don't care," said a lead organizer with Serve the People Akron. "We have a major problem with child poverty, child homelessness in this country, children in the foster system that are being abused and traumatized. None of these people care about them. They just want kids to be born to continue oiling the machine."

Reach Doug Livingston at dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3792.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Anti-abortion rally trolled during walk to Summit Mall in Fairlawn