Rain or shine, Saturday morning, bring your sign as women (and the men who support them) across the country march in solidarity for women’s rights. A peaceful presence is planned for May 14 at 9 a.m. on the steps of the courthouse in Smethport.
Organizer Harriet Nevil, a retired registered nurse, anticipates quite a crowd and hopes to see many young women in attendance, “they need to know how important these issues are.”
Abortion legality in the United States has been in limbo for many years. Most people have heard of Roe v. Wade but may not understand what caused it to be appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Most recently, the leak of the draft opinion from Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, which purports his decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, has stirred up a new round of turmoil and fear.
And this is how Nevil is taking this new round of controversy. “Frightened, very frightened, where is this headed next,” said Nevil, “what right will they take from us next? This, this is sad.”
Nevil said, “We have to have this conversation. We have to draw a line in the sand. This is a right. I am scared,” she said. “I am so afraid we are going to go backward.”
According to Nevil, this is a grassroots effort and as far as she knows, no other organizations will be at the march. Of course, all are welcome to the event, she says.
A similar event, organized by Nevil, was held in 2019 in Bradford after she realized more needed to be done on this topic.
She organized a few people and they did the same, “Same as last time, I called up some friends and they called some, and now we are going to be in Smethport this time.” And, she said, it is not only women who attend these marches, “many men were there in 2019 and I suspect they will be at this one as well. Think about all the women in their lives: wives, mothers, sisters, daughters – men support us women.” The march held in 2019, Nevil was quoted as saying, “Men are sympathetic to our cause as well as the clergy.”
Nevil and her husband have been married for 51 years. She says that their marriage is built on respect for each other. She was in nursing school during the Vietnam War and became a registered nurse in 1969. She has seen a few things over her 73 years and is willing to share some of her memories in hopes that someone will listen, and “stop the bans on our bodies.”
Back before Roe, before abortion was legal, women would meet for an appointment at the house of an abortionist. Hence the name kitchen table abortions. “Who knows what was used at these places, but many women would bleed and we would get them in the emergency room,” said Nevil, “for too many it was too late.”
She is afraid that if Roe v. Wade is overturned, and the decision on abortion legality is in the hands of the states, this is what women will be going back to. “How is this a democracy? Are our representatives really voting the way we, their constituents, want them to?” said Nevil.
Earlier this week, Sen. Bob Casey, D-PA, released a statement that he would vote yes to advance debate on the Women’s Health Protection Act. He stated he would also support a future bill if this one did not pass.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate did not have enough votes to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, to protect a person’s ability to determine whether to continue or end a pregnancy, and to protect a health care provider’s ability to provide abortion services.
Nevil stated, “It will be an election issue,” she continued, “I’m going to make it one.”
She knows there will be more news and more debate on this issue. But, at 73 years old, she still has hope for the generations that are on their way up.
Nevil noted she has attended national pro-choice events, adding she has a shirt, which displays a pro-choice message from an event back in 2004 she might wear, “this isn’t my first march, I already have my bullhorn out of the mothballs. I feel like I have to do something. We’re going to exercise our right to free speech”
As a quick summary, Roe v. Wade was a case that originated in Texas but was ultimately heard in the U.S. Supreme Court. Roe, a single woman who was pregnant sued for herself and others to make abortion legal in Texas. Prior to the lawsuit, abortion was only legal if it was done to save the mother’s life; otherwise, in Texas, abortion was a crime. Even the attempt to have one or perform one was considered a crime.
Though both sides argued the issue and their points. Roe argued the Texas laws were vague, her privacy had been violated, and Texas laws infringed on her 14th amendment right to liberty. She also argued she had an absolute right to end the pregnancy at any time and for any reason. Wade argued that the state had a responsibility to protect and safeguard prenatal health and that in doing so it was protecting the fetus’s 14th amendment. Wade also argued the state had to protect the prenatal life from conception.
The Court sided somewhat in the middle. They agreed recognized that abortion does fall within the right to privacy in the 14th amendment, and the broadly defined term liberty included a right to privacy when it comes to abortion.
Due to many disagreements about when life begins, the original decision used the language of the Constitution to define the word person. However, they also recognized there were many religious and medical views to consider for when life begins and that it is not up to the states to decide this area.
The Court did give the states some regulatory capability by dividing pregnancy into trimesters and directly framing what can and cannot be regulated within each 12-week period.
This was a landmark case in this county. However, it has been under attack for many years. The decision to make abortion legal in the United States has been one of the most debated topics in over 50 years.
