Story and photos by Sunayana Prabhu
RED BANK – More than a hundred people rallied at Riverside Gardens Park in Red Bank Friday, demanding legal abortion rights for women nationwide as protests over impending Supreme Court decisions intensify throughout the country.
Chants of “hands off my body” and “my body, my choice” reverberated throughout the park May 6 as protestors voiced their outrage in the rain and cold. Days prior, news outlet Politico obtained an initial draft of a U.S. Supreme Court opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito that showed a majority of justices poised to overturn the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade decision that established the right to abortion nationwide.
“Overturning Roe means 26 states could swiftly move to ban abortion – including 13 states with laws that could immediately go into effect,” said Lauren Nicosia from Planned Parenthood in Shrewsbury. “That means in half the country, people will no longer have power over their own bodies and their own lives.”
In January, Gov. Phil Murphy signed the Freedom of Reproductive Choice Act, guaranteeing and expanding a person’s right to reproductive freedom in New Jersey. This legislation protects reproductive choice in New Jersey even if the Supreme court overturns Roe v. Wade.
Nicosia, along with other speakers – Merrill Mezzacappa from New Jersey’s National Organization for Women (NOW); Kerri Kennedy from American Friends Service Committee and Elect Women NJ; Red Bank Borough council member Kate Triggiano; and Rev. Craig Rubano from Lincroft’s Unitarian Universalist Congregation – urged Congress to codify access to legal abortion without restriction.
“Rights without access are meaningless,” Nicosia said.
The Red Bank rally, held Mother’s Day weekend, was one of many emergency actions throughout the country as citizens supporting abortion rights reacted to the leaked draft of a Supreme Court decision which would, for the first time in 50 years, remove a constitutionally protected right. The draft also seems to jeopardize other privacy protections, including same sex marriage and other rights.
Gutting Roe v. Wade is only the tipping point, said Nicosia. “After abortion it is going to be contraception, it’s going to be LGBTQ+ rights, marriage equality, it is going to be a lot of different things. This Court has failed the country. We are devastated. We are furious and we’re going to fight back.”
The rally was organized by Our Revolution, Action Together Shore Area, Greater Red Bank Women’s Initiative, Planned Parenthood and Monmouth County Democratic Progressive Caucus, among others.
Protestors of all ages from around the state held signs that read “Keep Abortion Legal” and “Codify Roe V. Wade Right Now,” among others with less printable messages.
For many, it has been a never-ending fight. Liz, an 88-year-old, has been fighting for abortion rights for many years. Holding up a sign in the rain that read “Great Grandmothers for Legal and Safe Abortions,” Liz said, “I feel like men have no right over what women do, I mean, it’s like telling all men they have to get surgery so they can or cannot have sperm.”
A few Stockton University undergrads followed their Instagram feed to Riverside Gardens Park for the protest. One of the students, Summer Forter, said, “It just feels like such a regression from all the progress that we’ve made,” noting it’s disheartening to have to fight for the same freedoms every generation.
“This is something that isn’t just going to affect people with uteruses. This affects all of us,” said Sean Haney, another Stockton student.
New Jersey is one of the few states that has legalized abortion through legislative action. “We are going to be protected in New Jersey,” Kennedy said. “The problem is nationally.”
And, anecdotally, she said abortion clinics in the state have seen a rise in out-of-state patients coming to New Jersey for treatment.
“We’re creating a segregated country where wealthy women are going to be able to access abortions,” she said. “The most vulnerable again are going to be even further marginalized. I am worried about a segregated class, more economic disparity among the haves and have nots, and really, the erosion of rights to choose and then what it means for other rights that are protected by the 14th amendment.”
Riverside Gardens Park has seen peaceful activism in Red Bank since 2016, Red Bank Borough council member Kate Triggiano said. “In the darkest times, you have to make sure that you don’t get burnt out. You need to make sure that you’re protecting the ground, making sure that we continue on the right path here in New Jersey.”
Counteracting the arguments of pro-life activists who want to ban abortion nationwide, Rev. Craig Rubano of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Monmouth County in Lincroft called abortion rights a human justice issue. He shared the church’s storied history of protecting pregnant people’s rights since the 1960s. Before the passage of Roe V. Wade, members of the congregation accompanied pregnant persons to doctor’s appointments across the state and even to locations outside the country. “Mandating equal access to quality health care is essential to a person’s autonomy and personal dignity as a child of God, as a sacred human being. Denying pregnant people access is cruelty disguised as morality,” he said.
Refuting one of the most common arguments in the pro-life arsenal – that life begins at conception or when a fetal heartbeat is detected – Rubano said, “The Bible says nothing of when a person gains a soul.”
As chair of NOW New Jersey’s Reproductive Task Force, Merrill Mezzacappa noted the irony of protesting the “motherhood penalty” Mother’s Day weekend. But she emphasized the gendered economic disparity caused by lack of access to abortion. “Our study shows 40% of participants needed abortions for financial reasons. And those who kept their pregnancies were four times more likely to end up in poverty. The reality is that when women become parents in the workforce, their wages go down.”
The leaked Supreme Court draft was circulated in early February, per Politico’s report, and the final opinion is not expected to be released until June.
The article originally appeared in the May 12 – 18, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
