This is a public cervix announcement: East Enders are not going to stand idly by as the United States Supreme Court appears poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that for nearly 50 years has protected women's right to choose to have an abortion.
That was the takeaway on Saturday on the steps of the Suffolk County Supreme Court in Riverhead, where hundreds of people from Montauk and Orient to Brookhaven and Patchogue rallied in support of Roe v. Wade, hoping to send the nation's highest court a resounding message.
"We're here to protect the civil rights of women," said Rebecca Dolber, a founder of the East End Action Network, a co-sponsor of Saturday's rally. "I think it's very important that if you are a birthing person, a woman . . . and you believe in your right to choose what you do with your body, that you come out of your house take a break from your schedule and stand here with us. We need to show people that we're not going anywhere — this isn't a resolved issue."
Planned Parenthood, the Progressive East End Reformers, and Indivisible North Fork were among the groups taking part in the rally, dubbed Bans Off Our Bodies as part of a day of action in cities across the U.S.
Speakers in Riverhead included two Suffolk County legislators and congressional candidates, Bridget Fleming and Kara Hahn, along with Kate Mueth of the Neo-Political Cowgirls and Lara Nadosy, a midwife and abortion provider who practices on the East End.
"Abortion is essential and preventive health care. . . . It is a deeply, deeply personal medical decision, not a political one, and needs to be left to the patients and their physicians," Ms. Nadosy said.
Abigail Hallock, a 19-year-old survivor of rape, took the megaphone to tell the story about how she became pregnant from being violently sexually assaulted three years ago. Barely old enough to get her driver's license, she faced the possibility of having an abortion, though the pregnancy ultimately ended in a miscarriage. On Saturday, she stood up for the right to choose.
"I had walked such a fine line for the past six years struggling with my mental health, struggling to stay alive, and I knew that if I were to continue with the pregnancy, I would have to go off the psychiatric meds that kept me afloat for the past six years," she said. "With the added trauma and stress from the attack — I was already exhibiting symptoms of P.T.S.D. — I knew there was no way in hell I was making it through that pregnancy alive. . . . I would have had to make a choice, and any day, I would have chosen my mental health. What's the point of bringing a child into this world if it costs me my life?"
Two protesters, one of them Donna Reggio of Calverton, showed up dressed as female characters from "The Handmaid's Tale," the book and TV series that explore a fictional, dystopian world in which women are forced into childbearing slavery.
"Abortion didn't start with Roe v. Wade," Ms. Reggio said. "Safe, legal abortion started then." She urged people to "vote for political candidates who will protect Roe v. Wade."
Rallygoers proceeded to march through downtown Riverhead, holding signs with hard-hitting messages -- "No wire hangers ever again," "No uterus, no opinion," "My body is none of your business."
Ms. Fleming, who was a prosecutor of sex crimes before she was elected to the County Legislature, said that 26 states are poised to ban abortion right away if Roe is overturned, "leaving 36 million people of reproductive age without any access to abortion care." Seventy-five percent of Americans, she said, support the right to choose.
"We won't go back!" she shouted, the crowd echoing her calls. "On behalf of all the women, all the families, all the humans in the United States, we have to make sure that we do everything we can to protect a woman's right to choose."
