Carrying signs with slogans like “We won’t go back,” demonstrators across Long Island and nationwide Saturday urged the preservation of abortion rights two days before the U.S. Supreme Court begins a new term that includes a case aimed at overturning the constitutional right to an abortion.
“Women fought to get rights, and now those rights are being taken away,” said Mayra Valladares, 42, of North Bellmore, one of about 300 people at a rally in front of the Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola.
The demonstration, she said, is to show “we’re not turning back. We need to move forward.”
Hundreds also rallied in Great Neck, Huntington Station, Lindenhurst, Port Jefferson Station and Smithtown.
In Washington, D.C., one of hundreds of other marches and demonstrations scheduled nationwide, many thousands rallied on the steps of the Supreme Court building.
The Supreme Court on Dec. 1 is scheduled to hear arguments in a case involving a Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Mississippi’s attorney general is asking the court to use the case to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that established a constitutional right to an abortion.
On Sept. 1, the court refused to block enforcement of a Texas law that bans abortion once cardiac activity is detected — usually about six weeks, before many women know they’re pregnant. The effect is a ban on most abortions in the state. The U.S. Justice Department filed suit against Texas, and federal lawyers Friday urged a federal judge to invalidate the law.
In a rally in upstate Seneca Falls, Gov. Kathy Hochul told those in Texas and other states who oppose abortion rights to “get your damn hands off our bodies” and invited women from “states where their rights are under assault” to come to New York.
“We’ll take care of you, make sure you have the health care you deserve,” she said.
In Mineola, demonstrators, who later marched a few blocks to the Theodore Roosevelt Executive and Legislative Building and back, chanted “not the church, not the state, women must decide their fate” and “abortion is a human right.”
They urged approval of a bill the U.S. House narrowly passed on Sept. 24 that would codify Roe v. Wade into law — a measure that faces an uphill battle in the Senate.
Jill Williams, 56, of Hempstead, said if Roe v. Wade is overturned, poor women will especially be harmed. Even with abortion legal, many low-income women don’t have the money for an abortion or the funds or time off work to travel sometimes long distances to where the procedure is performed, she said. If abortion is made illegal in some states, “People with access and resources can still get what they want. What about people without resources?”
New York legalized abortion three years before Roe v. Wade, in 1970, and in 2019 the State Legislature strengthened that law. But a number of states have laws banning abortion that would go into effect if Roe v. Wade is overturned.
Joy Smiley, 72, of Levittown, who carried a “My Body My Choice” sign, noted how before Roe v. Wade, women died or were injured trying to end pregnancies themselves or while obtaining an illegal abortion.
If the ruling is overturned, women unable to travel to places where abortion is legal will have to again resort to “the back alleys or finding some other way of ending their pregnancy. It could be very dangerous for them,” she said.
Opponents of women’s access to abortion condemned the rallies.
“What about equal rights for unborn women?” tweeted Jeanne Mancini, president of an anti-abortion group called March for Life.
Many who oppose abortion rights cite their religious beliefs as their reason.
But the Rev. Mark Lukens, pastor of Bethany Congregational Church in East Rockaway, said “being truly pro-life is making sure every child brought into the world is a wanted child and has the basic resources to have what Jesus called the abundant life.”
Lukens added, “What passes for pro-life in this country is really about controlling women’s lives and women’s bodies. I think that’s against what Jesus taught.”
Smiley said the decision whether to have a child is personal, “between a woman and her doctor, and I don’t believe any outside person has a right to interfere with that.”
With AP
David Olson covers health care. He has worked at Newsday since 2015 and previously covered immigration, multicultural issues and religion at The Press-Enterprise in Southern California.
