GENEVA, N.Y. — A large contingent from Geneva will be among the thousands of women taking to the streets of the nation’s capital Saturday, a day after Donald J. Trump is inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States.
Marnae Ergil is one of 56 women who will travel by bus early Saturday morning to Washington, D.C. A group from Hobart and William Smith Colleges also is heading to the Saturday march.
The Geneva contingent will leave at 2:30 a.m. and expects to arrive in plenty of time for the rally, which begins at 10 a.m. and ends at 1:15 p.m. — after which the march is planned.
“The Women’s March on Washington will send a bold message to our new government on their first day in office, and to the world that women’s rights are human rights,” organizers say on their website. “We stand together, recognizing that defending the most marginalized among us is defending all of us.”
Ergil said the group organized the bus excursion after a series of online chats. They have since followed up with a couple of organizational meetings ahead of the trip.
Similar marches are planned around the nation, including in Seneca Falls and Ithaca.
“I think the message is to let the new administration know that we’re watching, that the rights of all Americans matter and are not lost,” Ergil said.
Ergil added that many people are bringing their children with them, noting that while it’s billed as a women’s march, it’s open to all and represents a number of groups, including minorities and the LGBTQ community.
Among their concerns: healthcare and the planned repeal of the Affordable Care Act, a move Trump promised during the campaign. Republicans in the Senate and House appear to have the votes to make that happen. The goal, say Republicans, is to replace it with healthcare options that are more affordable and provide more choices for consumers.
Opponents say there’s no guarantee that it would be replaced by a program that would provide coverage to so many people.
“A large number of people in Ontario County will lose their healthcare,” Ergil predicted.
Ergil noted other benefits of Obamacare as it relates to women, including affordable birth control. Before the ACA was enacted, women could be charged more money for healthcare simply because they are the gender that has babies, Ergil said.
She pointed out that greater access to birth control has had a positive effect, pointing to a new survey that determined the annual number of abortions in the U.S has dropped to well under 1 million, the lowest level since 1974. The decrease was attributed in part to greater access to birth control. More restrictive abortion laws in many states also contributed, the report said.
“You’d think they (opponents of greater birth-control access) would consider that a good thing,” she said.
Ergil does not see Trump’s victory as a mandate — she did not believe President Obama had one either after his two victories — but given GOP control of the House and Senate, it puts Trump in a position to do things that she and others don’t believe are good for America.
That’s why a unified message is needed — right from the beginning, Ergil said.
“(Trump and the GOP) need to understand that we will not just sit back and let it happen,” Ergil concluded.
