Activists plan protest following draft abortion opinion

WESTPORT — Darcy Hicks remembers watching the nurses stroke her friend’s hair, comforting her as her friend got an abortion back in college.

Hicks, the founder of the activist group DefenDemocracy, recalled how her friend likely wouldn’t have been able to carry the baby to term for health reasons, and if she had, her friend hadn’t finished her education and had no job prospects, making having the baby out of wedlock not an option.

“Abortion isn’t something anyone chooses to do,” said Hicks, who knows a number of women who have had abortions. “It was a necessity for her. She could not have this baby and she could not tell people she was getting an abortion.”

She said she can’t imagine what her friend would have done if abortion had been illegal back then.

It’s a concern she especially has now following the leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court, reported by Politico this week, to overturn Roe v. Wade and the right to choose.

DefenDemocracy will be holding a protest from 4 to 5:30 p.m. this Sunday on the Ruth Steinkraus Cohen Bridge, in downtown Westport.

“It’s a Mother’s Day day of protest against the proposed decision,” Hicks said.

Melissa Kane, a longtime activist for women’s reproductive rights, said she plans to be at the protest, fighting for women’s rights like she and her mother before her have done. She said her mother is 87 and “it’s crazy” that the same fights are still happening today.

She said she wasn’t surprised to hear of the draft decision, as they had been hearing this would happen for years.

“It’s intense sadness, but certainly not shock,” Kane said.

The announcement sparked an outcry across the state and country.

Hicks said she felt “paralyzed” when she learned of the leaked draft opinion Tuesday morning. It was hard for her to get out of bed, but luckily she attended a pre-planned event Tuesday evening with other outraged women that gave her the community she needed to recharge her inner activist and organize Sunday’s protest.

“This is probably the worst Supreme Court decision in my lifetime,” Hicks said.

While the leaked document is just a draft and can be changed, many are skeptical that will happen.

“It’s a predatory act of savagery on women’s bodies and society as a whole,” Hicks said.

She said the decision wouldn’t ban abortions, but would ban “safe” abortions. It’s a point other historians and activists have raised, saying women will still try to get abortions whether they’re legal or not.

Kane said this affects all women but disproportionately will impact women who are unable to drive to a clinic, have someone drive them or be able to take off work to go to another state for an abortion.

“By and large the impact this has is on low-income women more than anyone else,” she said.

Kane said access to abortion might not be something all women in Westport will deal with first hand, but changing Roe v. Wade is still something everyone should be concerned about because it could affect laws, as well as women’s bodies and futures.

It could also affect other rulings, such as same-sex marriage, interracial marriage and access to contraception, she said.

“This is so far ranging and so absurd and so surreal,” she said. “It’s really horrifying.”

Her 19-year-old daughter is a student in Texas and she’s aware she and other women wouldn’t be able to get an abortion there if needed.

“The majority of Americans are very much prochoice so what’s happening here is the will of the minority,” Kane said.

The Pew Research Center reports that 59 percent of Americans think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to a study done in April 2021.

Hicks also questioned if lawmakers who oppose abortion are preparing for the social ramifications if abortion is made illegal, such as more visits to the emergency room, or more food stamps, help with child care, equal pay for women or assistance to women now left to care for babies.

Kane said this makes the midterm elections even more important so that protections can be done by legislators at the state and federal level with laws outside of the court’s decision. This includes passing the Women’s Health Protection Act before Congress now.

“There are ways to protect women’s reproductive rights,” she said. “We just have to be willing to go to bat.”

Hicks said the draft decision is a step back in time when women didn’t have control over their own bodies.

“America is about advancement and going forward,” Hicks said. “It’s about getting better and getting people more freedoms.”