'We can't just be meek and mild.' Abortion rights protesters rally in downtown Kent
Armed with signs, bodies, and voices, people rallied for abortion rights Wednesday in downtown Kent.
The protest followed Friday's overturning of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing Americans a constitutional right to abortion procedures.
The crowd began gathering at Risman Plaza on Kent State University's campus shortly before 1 p.m.
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First-time organizer and third-year KSU student Autumn Pritchard arranged the rally through the Women's March website because she believes in the importance of abortion-rights access, she said.
"Abortion rights is not the only thing that's going to be affected," Pritchard said. "Access to hormonal treatments, birth control, and other rights for people with uteruses are going to be affected."
She's also worried concerned for the well being friends of hers with conditions like endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome.
"They would likely die without some of the treatments that are protected under Roe v. Wade," she said.
Also in the forefront of her mind is the protection of abortion rights for the sake of trans and non-binary people.
These are not concepts that Pritchard has only thought about in the abstract. She said when she was 14, she had a pregnancy scare with an older person who had spent time grooming her.
"If I had gotten pregnant, then it would have been really hard for me to gain an abortion— especially considering his parents were very influential in the community," Pritchard said. "It would have been a very tough decision for me, especially with religious parents as well." She added that she's glad she didn't have to get an abortion, but there are people out there who do find themselves in that situation that should be able to make the choice for themselves.
Attendees offer reasons for rallying
As the appointed hour moved closer the plaza began filling with more and more people, all with their own reasons for attending.
Dakota Best attended on behalf of her mother, who had to have an abortion at the age of 14.
Adrian Schneider showed up because the Roe decision protected more than abortions, she said.
"I genuinely believe that overturning it is an attack on all minorities, so I'm here to protest it and make sure that everyone has their rights," Schneider said.
Cat Klein attended because she's worried about the path the reversal has set for the country.
"It's not just about pro-life, pro-choice," she said. "You mess with one right, you have the right to take them all."
Klein went on to say that in order to regain rights lost, the public must stick up for themselves.
"We can't just be meek and mild," she said. "Everyone wants to talk about change, but they just sit on the sideline. They don't come out like this, they don't show up and defend their rights, they don't try and talk to their government at all, they just want to complain to their friends or online."
She understands why people tend to stay out of the protests and rallies.
"It's scary, you know. You hear horror stories of things gone bad at protests, you hear people getting shutdown left and right, but if you're scared, nothing's going to change," Klein said.
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Organizers rally the crowd
At the start of the rally, Pritchard stepped into the middle of a loose circle formed by the crowd in front of the fountain at Risman Plaza, addressing them through a small bullhorn. At first it was hard to hear her. Someone in the crowd called out, "Louder!" and Pritchard raised her voice.
"On June 24, a new era has begun in the United States," Pritchard said. "It is not a new era in which the statement of Land of the Free will ring true anymore, if it had at all. For anyone who is not a cis-gendered, white, rich male, we are not safe." She faltered briefly, blaming her nervousness. The crowd responded with supportive cheering.
Pritchard continued, "[This decision] will be disproportionately affecting people of color, and other minorities in America, including the Queer community and lower working class Americans in poverty."
She called for people to apply pressure on the Supreme Court justices responsible for the overtur, calling Justices Clarence Thomas, Amy Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, and Samuel Alito "cowards."
Upon concluding her speech, Pritchard turned over the bullhorn to a number of other speakers.
Next up was Erik Gomez, vice president of KSU's Spanish and Latino Students Association.
"I understand the importance of using my privilege to uplift those who don't have that privilege, and use my platform to help others," Gomez said. "Let me be clear, this is not some political issue, this is not some uncomfortable topic, this is a human rights issue, and it needs to be called out for what it is."
Gaby Blake, an organizer with three years of expereince under her belt and a KSU paralegal studies student opened her speech in a call and response of "No Justice, no peace."
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Blake said that the most affected people will be Black and indigenous populations.
"As a woman — as a person with a uterus — I stepped back 50 years in history last Friday. But as a Black, bi woman in this country it just reminded me of my place," Blake said, pacing the inside of the circle formed by the crowd, turning in circles so that everyone could hear her. "This country does not care about us; they do not want to fight for us. They don't give a flying [expletive] whether or not we're out here until it makes them uncomfortable. We're here to make them uncomfortable."
JD Davis of Rise up For Abortion Rights in Cleveland called the Supreme Court's decision illegitimate, saying that the key to securing abortion rights is holding actions that break through the everyday monotony of people's lives.
Speaking last, Klein echoed what she'd said earlier.
"I'm here today against my family's wishes," she said, telling the crowd that her mother had told her to "sit quiet" and "wait it out."
"We can't be the meek and mild sheep that they want because they will take and take and take," Klein said. "I came here not because I wasn't scared, I was terrified. But being courageous and fighting for what you believe isn't about not feeling your fear, it's about overcoming your fears, and overcoming their oppression."
Crowd marches to courthouse
With that, the crowd began marching along the Lester Lefton Esplanade towards the Portage County Municipal Courthouse in Kent.
All the way there, the group chanted, and waved signs. Drivers in cars honked their support.
Upon reaching the intersection of East Main and Willow streets, cheers went up from the crowd as the cars blared their horns.
Roughly an hour after the start of the rally, the throng arrived on the steps of the courthouse still chanting. As more and more people crossed the street, joining those already assembled, the noise became a thunderous wall.
Eventually, it became quiet enough for Audrey Jobe, a first generation immigrant and full-time student working two jobs, to address the crowd through the bullhorn. Beside her an American Sign Language translator signed the message.
Jobe listed a number of things that she believed to be part of the abortion-rights platform including the right to comprehensive sex education, free healthcare, free child and newborn care, months-long maternity leave, and "so much more that I cannot fit on one piece of paper."
"I know that in the event that my birth control fails me and I do not have access to Plan B, I would not be afforded the financial luxury of crossing state lines to access and afford an abortion," Jobe said. "In the world's wealthiest country, why do we still have the world's highest maternal death rate...This is a fight for everyone. This is a fight for everyone with a uterus, this is a fight for every black, indigenous POC...This is a fight for everyone disproportionately affected."
Contact reporter Derek Kreider at dkreider@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Rally for abortion rights starts on campus ends on courthouse steps
