Protestors decry threat to Roe v. Wade

Roughly 75 people gathered outside Wareham’s Town Hall on Saturday to protest the leaked Supreme Court decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade, threatening abortion access across the country. 

Carrying signs reading messages like “keep abortion safe and legal,” “abort the court,” and “you can’t ban abortion, you can only ban safe abortion,” the crowd frequently was buoyed by honks of support from drivers — and one wheelie from a passing motorcyclist.

Sandy Cormier set the plans in motion, creating an online event for the protest that drew supporters from Taunton to the Cape. 

“We need to come together,” Cormier said. She said she’d had an abortion when she was 18, and that she didn’t regret it. She remembered attending a protest in support of that right at the time and being frightened by counter-protesters who called the pro-choice group murderers.

“It’s been 50 years,” she said. “Abortion rates are down. Here we are again.”

Paula Jean O’Neill, who has been involved in protest movements since the sixties, said she feels like the struggle is “never-ending,” and said she fears we’re going backwards.

“Here I am again,” she said.

Darwin, who came from Taunton, said that he attended last year’s pro-choice rally, too.

“I come every time. I’ve got to be here,” he said, adding that he was fighting for the women in his family. “They want a fight? We’ll give it to them.”

Glen Williams of Fairhaven held a sign reading “Defrock the 5 lying justices,” and said that each of the justices swore during their confirmation hearings that they would never overturn precedent. He and others at the event said they were concerned that the right to have an abortion would be the first in a series to be challenged, as the Supreme Court’s decisions allowing gay and interracial marriages are based in part on the idea of a right to privacy, which also underpins the Roe decision. 

“I’m an ally for women but I’m here fighting for unenumerated rights,” said Joe Quigley of New Bedford.

A number of protesters noted that the crowd at the event skewed older, which they expressed worry about.

“I just hope the young people are paying attention,” Quigley said.

Helen Havlak, one of the younger people at the protest, said she was from Missouri, where there’s only one abortion clinic left in the state. A bill there threatened to make aborting an ectopic pregnancy a felony, even though such pregnancies threaten the life of the parent and the baby.

“That’s straight-up pro-death,” she said.

Ellen Bartlett of Wareham said that she’d been concerned this would happen since Trump’s election put him in the position to appoint conservative justices to the Supreme Court. She pointed out that the majority of Americans are in favor of allowing abortion, and said its up to the people to make their anger known.