Abortion rights supporters rally Downtown
Mayor Gainey assures crowd that city will be a ‘place for abortions’
Just weeks after toasting her win in a Democratic primary for Pittsburgh’s open congressional seat, state Rep. Summer Lee was in no celebratory mood Friday evening as she paced the steps of the City-County Building to denounce the Supreme Court ruling that struck down national abortion rights.
“What happened today was no surprise — It doesn’t make it hurt more,” Ms. Lee bellowed before a crowd of over 300 abortion rights protesters. “What happened today was just in a long line of shameful things and shameful events that we have seen come down from shameful government officials who appointed shameful people to the highest court in the land.”
Hours after the Supreme Court delivered its ruling on Friday that permits states to overturn Roe v. Wade, some of Pittsburgh’s top Democrats headed Downtown to rail against the decision while promising protections for abortion seekers in the region.
The stakes — 50 years of abortion access suddenly torn away for millions of women — animated a slate of leaders, including Mayor Ed Gainey, state Rep. Austin Davis, Allegheny County Councilwoman-at-large Bethany Hallam, and Sydney Etheredge, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Western PA.
For Ms. Lee, the court’s decision was indicative of a political establishment she has long decried. Meanwhile, Mr. Gainey demonstrated that he would use his power as the city’s top official to protect the rights of abortion seekers in Pittsburgh.
“If you care about abortion rights, then it’s time to stop saying ‘Vote Blue, No Matter Who,” Ms. Lee said. “I’m not here to tell you don’t vote blue, I’m here to tell you we can send better people to office. There are better people in this crowd than some of the people who have represented us for decades. I’m here to say that we have enough power to hold our government accountable.”
It was during this cadence that Ms. Lee offered what she believes Democratic leaders could do to protect abortion rights, including expanding the number of seats on the Supreme Court and abolishing the filibuster to help pass protections for Roe v. Wade.
Mr. Gainey, speaking before Ms. Lee, delivered his own pitch for unity in the face of right-wing support of Roe’s removal, calling Pittsburgh a “place for abortions” and inviting abortion seekers to seek the procedure here.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Gainey said, his team repainted the buffer zone that legally deters anti-abortion protesters from congregating outside the Planned Parenthood Downtown center on Liberty Avenue.
“Abortion is more than just health care. Abortion is a human right,” Mr. Gainey said to applause. “That is the foundation of democracy, and what they did today is wrong. But here’s what they did, what they don’t understand. The fallout is a setup because now we’ve got to be more united than ever before.”
A small group of abortion opponents gathered Friday morning outside the Planned Parenthood center in support of the Supreme Court’s decision.
Kaine Spitak, 24, of California, Pa., and Herb Geraghty, 26, of Philadelphia, celebrated the ruling outside the clinic, wearing colorful clothes with signs that heralded the end of federal abortion protections.
“We are so excited to see this monumental expansion of human rights protections to one of the most marginalized groups out there: the unborn,” Mr. Geraghty said.
The evening rally, organized by Women’s March Pittsburgh, came as protests against the decision cropped up across the nation, including outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.
Friday’s 6-3 ruling by the court affirmed Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, upholding a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy with exceptions for medical emergencies.
Twenty-six states are now expected to ban abortion procedures in some capacity. In Pennsylvania, where abortion is legal up to 24 weeks in pregnancy, Gov. Tom Wolf has been adamant that no abortion bans will clear his desk while he remains in office.
But during the rally, some speakers were quick to note that November’s gubernatorial election between prochoice Attorney General Josh Shapiro and far-right state Sen. Doug Mastriano could quickly change the climate of abortion access in the Keystone State.
Mr. Mastriano promised voters during his campaign that if elected governor, he would sign into a law an abortion ban on procedures after six weeks of pregnancy while also ending state funding for Planned Parenthood centers.
State Rep. Austin Davis, a Democrat running alongside Mr. Shapiro for the lieutenant governor’s seat, said his thoughts today were with the women across Pennsylvania who have “less rights now than when they woke up this morning.”
“Josh and I stand in solidarity with each and every one of them,” Mr. Davis said. “While abortion is still legal right now in Pennsylvania, we know we have a governor’s race in November — and the only thing that stands between an abortion ban in Pennsylvania is a Democratic governor’s veto.”
It was an evening stacked with political forces, although not without passionate testimony from some of the region’s prominent activists and abortion rights advocates.
Ms. Etheredge warned that a ban on abortion would not stop women from seeking abortions, especially those seeking the procedure in Pennsylvania from surrounding states.
“In Western Pennsylvania, the stakes are high,” she told the crowd. “We have always seen patients come from Ohio and West Virginia due to abortion restrictions in those states. We will continue to see this in a way like we have never before.”
“We are going to be that state that’s going to make it safe to come get the health care that you need,” said Dena Stanley, executive director of LGBT group TransYOUniting PGH and Women’s March organizer. “Today, we came out here for motivation, to empower you, to let you know that we stand with you.”
The crowd, which quickly grew above several hundred people, later marched from the CityCounty Building in a loop through the streets of Downtown, at one point chanting “My body, my choice.”
“Neither of us wants to see the country regress to a point that we can’t come back from,” Phia Johnson, 19, from Ford City, said. She was with her mother, Sally Simpson, 48, who is also from Ford City.
“I feel like I’m gonna cry. It makes me really sad that we let this happen,” said Linda Slyder, 69, from Emporium, Pa., who attended with her 2-year-old granddaughter in her stroller.
“She probably won’t remember this, but I want her to be an activist when she grows up, I want her to demand her rights,” Ms. Slyder said, looking to her granddaughter. “We didn’t have anything when I was a kid. When I was like 15, there was nothing, and she had them and now they’re trying to take them away.”