Rallies in Harrisburg and across the nation held to protest abortion restrictions

Editor’s note: This story was updated to include information about rallies taking place across the country.

It’s 2021, and the activists who gathered for a Saturday morning rally at Pennsylvania’s Capitol building said they are tired of having to defend women’s reproductive rights.

The tightening of abortion restrictions in various states galvanized abortion rights supporters in Harrisburg and cities across the nation to take part in hundreds of abortion-themed protests Saturday.

In Chicago’s Daley Plaza, thousands took part in theDefend Abortion Access” rally. In Dallas, demonstrators filled Main Street Garden Park, many carrying signs bearing messages like “Let’s talk about the elephant in the womb,” and “My vagina, my choice.”

And participants in the first Women’s March of the Biden administration headed straight for the steps of the Supreme Court. Demonstrators filled the streets surrounding the court, shouting “My body, my choice” and cheering loudly to the beat of drums.

The demonstrations took place two days before the start of a new term for the Supreme Court that could decide the future of abortion rights in the United States.

In particular, rally-goers voiced outrage at a newly-passed Texas law outlawing abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy.

Saturday morning’s “Bans Off Our Bodies” rally at the Pennsylvania Capitol was no different. Rally-goers filled the Capitol steps, many holding signs— one read, “Your laws are dystopian, keep them off our fallopians” — to hear a number of speakers.

The event follows Pennsylvania’s first March for Life on Monday, which drew thousands of anti-abortion advocates to the state Capitol. Thousands also participated in that event, which was organized by the Harrisburg-based Pennsylvania Family Institute. They urged state lawmakers to pass laws that would further restrict access to abortions.

The new Texas law bans abortions after doctors first detect a fetal heartbeat — normally around the six-week mark of pregnancy. Abortion rights activists argue many women don’t even know they are pregnant until weeks later.

The U.S. Supreme Court in late November or early December will hear arguments on Mississippi’s law that bans abortion after the 15th week of pregnancy.

Mississippi has told the court it should overrule Roe vs. Wade as well as the 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood vs. Casey, which prevents states from banning abortion before viability, the point at which a fetus can survive outside the womb, around 24 weeks of pregnancy.

“It’s an outright ploy by politicians to disregard an individual’s autonomy,” said gynecologist Dr. Catharine Baye Easton during the rally. Easton is also a Planned Parenthood Keystone board member.

Easton said she immigrated to the U.S. from a country where abortions are illegal, unsafe and unregulated. She said banning most abortions will cause “unimaginable consequences” for those who seek alternate, unregulated routes to end their pregnancy.

“It saddens me for us here in the U.S., where abortion is safe and legal. It should be accessible. It is outrageous,” she said. “It is extreme and it is time for us to take extreme measures to prevent this happening in Pennsylvania.”

Hampden Township resident Sonja Crow Lloyd attended the rally wearing face paint.

“Today I painted a black hand over my mouth because it’s basically like they’re trying to do the death to us women and our abortion rights,” she said. “Making girls that are [victims of] incest or [have been] raped forced to have a baby, I think that’s terrible and it’s almost like the death of us and our rights.”

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro also spoke during the event. Shapiro has continually voiced support for a woman’s right to an abortion, and he and Gov. Tom Wolf have vowed to fight back against any legislation that infringes on reproductive rights.

“Abortion is not an issue that affects one group of women or one type of family,” Shapiro said. “Black, white, brown, rich, poor ... people from all walks of life that have had very painful experiences that have led them to make decisions about their reproductive systems and their bodies. That’s why we’re here today, to protect that right.”

Another speaker, Lou Kirkland, talked about how she discovered she was pregnant in 2012. Without the means or desire to have children, Kirkland contacted Planned Parenthood and obtained a pill that would end her pregnancy.

In the 1960s, Kirkland’s paternal grandmother discovered she was pregnant with her third child — one she either could not or did not want to support. Because safe abortions were hard to come by, she had a “back alley,” or unregulated abortion, and soon bled to death.

Kirkland was brought to tears Saturday while remembering the contrast between her grandmother’s and her own abortion experiences. For years, she did not know the full story of why her grandmother prematurely died.

“[My grandmother] died and left two babies motherless,” Kirkland said. “Did she know her process? Was it explained to her? Was she scared? I don’t know.”

“This is something that I had to go through. I have dealt with something like this in my past and it’s something that I’m passionate about,” said Oxford resident Rachel Boohar. “I don’t want other women to have to feel like it’s hard to get an abortion if they have to. They need to make sure that they feel safe and comfortable if they get themselves into a situation.”

It’s been decades since she was in college, but speaker Juanita Jones clearly recalled accompanying a friend from her dorm to get an illegal abortion because she did not believe she could live as a single mom. A woman without medical experience tried to perform an abortion with a coat hanger, and afterward, Jones’ friend was in extreme pain. She later had a therapeutic abortion at a local hospital.

“There are myriad medical, social and personal reasons that influence the decisions we make,” Jones said. “Taking away safe resources makes those decisions more difficult, and more dangerous.”

“This rally is important because it’s 2021, we’re still fighting for the same things people were fighting for in the ‘30s, ‘40s, and ‘50s. It’s time for a change, and it’s time to make the choices we want to make about our bodies,” said attendee Imani Roberts, of Harrisburg.

Harrisburg City Councilwoman Shamaine Daniels, who just had a baby, said even with great health care benefits it took eight weeks for her to find out she was pregnant. In Texas, it would have been too late for her to get an abortion, if she wanted one.

“We can’t allow Texas’s idea of what America is to come to the steps of Pennsylvania. We need to trust women in America can make the best decisions for themselves,” Daniels said. “There’s a lot of rage, there’s a lot of tiredness. We don’t need to be doing this anymore.”

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.