Mothers pass torch to daughters in forever war for abortion rights
NEW YORK — They are mothers, they are daughters, they are comrades.
Generations of women came together for a May 14 Manhattan protest against the U.S. Supreme Court’s anticipated ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. There were women who have been fighting for nearly a half century to hold on to abortion rights; there were daughters who now face the prospect of a long battle to regain those rights.
Lindsay Walt and Eve Thomson
Growing up in the Midwest, Lindsay Walt, 66, remembers girls who were pregnant at 13 and dropped out of school. And friends who went to New York for abortions.
She protested in favor abortion before 1973 when Roe came down. She would go to New York — not for an
abortion but to live and raise a family.
Her 27-year-old daughter Eve Thomson said, “My mom’s been bringing me to protests for all different things, but since I was a little kid. So it’s kind of remarkable that this is something we’re still going through and still something we have to fight for.”
Amnet Ramos and Inaia Hernandez
Amid all the agitation of the rally, Amnet Ramos looked around her — particularly at her 12-year-old daughter, Inaia — and she was serene. The future is in good hands.
But Inaia and her siblings do not have their mother’s life story: The pregnancy she considered aborting when she was 21, but did not, giving birth to the first of her three kids, a son who “saved my life.” The tubal ligation that failed to prevent an ectopic pregnancy a couple of years ago; she would have had an abortion but miscarried.
Rita and Fairuz Nakouzi
Over 20 years ago, Rita Nakouzi and her family came to the U.S. from Beirut with high expectations. But recently the Brooklyn resident has been disappointed — “what makes America what it is is being denigrated and broken down.”
Her daughter, Fairuz, held up a sign: “Trust women, protect choice.”
Claudia Orellana and Isabella Rosario
Thirteen-year-old Isabella Rosario marched with her mother, Claudia Orellana, 46. And her mother’s story fuels her passion.
Ms. Orellana said she was 12 when she was raped by her uncle. She was five months pregnant when her mother found out and arranged for an abortion.
When she hears abortion opponents propose new laws that lack exceptions, even for rape or incest, the Jersey City, N.J., woman is infuriated and vows to continue the fight.