Youthful protester organizes women's rights rally in Redding

Mike Chapman, Redding Record Searchlight
·2 min read
A women's rights protest organized by 14-year-old Emily Finck of Redding, second from left, was greeted with honks of support by drivers along Cypress Avenue on Monday, July 4, 2022.
A women's rights protest organized by 14-year-old Emily Finck of Redding, second from left, was greeted with honks of support by drivers along Cypress Avenue on Monday, July 4, 2022.

Another in a series of local demonstrations promoting abortion rights took place Monday on the sidewalk along Cypress Avenue in front of Redding City Hall.

The women's rights protest Monday was organized by 14-year-old Emily Finck of Redding, who was joined by her sister and their mother, Jamie. Ten people and a dog lined Cypress Avenue with signs shortly after the protest started at noon.

Emily Finck
Emily Finck

"I'm out here today to protest the overturning of Roe v. Wade because even though abortion is legal where we live, it's not where others live in our country," Emily Finck said.

She cited a number of reasons why abortion should be legal everywhere in the U.S.

"There's lots of factors that can go into someone deciding to get an abortion such as teen pregnancy or they don't have enough money to be able to support a child," Emily Finck said.

The Redding demonstration was one of more than 50 protests across the country listed for the July 4 National Day of Protest.

The Monday protest organized by the 14-year-old shows a trend of youthful demonstrators.

Riley Nemchick of Shasta Lake shows a sign to drivers along Cypress Avenue during a women's rights protest on Monday, July 4, 2022.
Riley Nemchick of Shasta Lake shows a sign to drivers along Cypress Avenue during a women's rights protest on Monday, July 4, 2022.

At the same location June 26, an 11-year-old girl joined her father and 150 others who criticized the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision that said women do not have a constitutional right to an abortion. The ruling by the nation's top court left it up to the states to decide whether abortion is legal within their boundaries.

At one point that Sunday, the pre-teen Raegan Atkinson led protesters in a chant.

A similar demonstration — one that recognized Juneteenth, Pride Month and abortion rights — was planned later on, at 7 p.m. Monday, in front of City Hall.

Not to be outdone, a "Women's/Uterus Rights Protest" was advertised on Facebook for 5:30 p.m. Monday in front of the Shasta County Courthouse.

Mike Chapman is an award-winning reporter and photographer for the Record Searchlight in Redding, Calif. His newspaper career spans Yreka and Eureka in Northern California and Bellingham, Wash. Support local journalism by subscribing today.

This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Youthful protester organizes women's rights rally in Redding