Abortion-rights supporters rally on Green

GUILFORD — About

150 men, women and children marched around the Green chanting “Our Bodies, Our Choice,” “Keep Abortion Legal Keep Abortion Safe” and

“Hands Off Our Bodies,” led by Dawn Carafeno, using a bullhorn and wearing a “Handmaid’s Tale” costume.

The rally was organized to protest a draft leaked earlier this month of a

U.S. Supreme Court opinion to strike down Roe v. Wade, a 1973 court decision establishing the federal legality of abortion.

The long, red cloak and white bonnet Carafeno wore were a nod to the dystopian Hulu TV show, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” based in fictional Gilead, a totalitarian society ruled by a fundamentalist regime that treats women as property of the state.

“It feels like we are in Gilead,” said Carafeno, who organized the “Stand Up & Fight for Reproduction Rights” assembly Saturday afternoon.

“We are having a fight in Hartford over reproductive rights and we’re having a fight in our country over reproduction rights,” said Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz.

Bysiewicz was joined by state lawmakers and residents from the Shoreline area.

Guilford High School student Ellie Thomasson, 15, held a placard reading “Men cause 100% of unwanted pregnancies.”

“I’m young and I don’t want my rights taken away,” she said. “I’m going to get older and I still want the right to choose.”

State Sen. Christine Cohen, D-12, whose district includes Branford, Durham, Guilford, Killingworth, Madison and North Branford, urged attendees to get out and vote to protect their rights.

“We need to recognize that codifying Roe v. Wade into our law is simply not enough,” she said.

“We need to take it further,” Cohen said. “We need a constitutional amendment and we need to continue to stand up for women’s rights. We need to continue to stand up for reproductive health care and those rights.”

Branford resident Linda Mollow held a handmade sign that read, “Abortion is a medical procedure Abortion is healthcare Abortion is a woman’s choice.”

As the sound of church bells filled the air, she talked about attending the rally with her 16-year-old daughter, Ebie Mollow.

“I want her to have all of the choices that she may have in her future and it’s her right to decide what happens to her body and I wish her all the most amazing reproductive choices in the future, that they’re hers,” she said.

Katy Beiner, a senior at Madison’s Daniel Hand High School, talked about her generation as cars honked in the background.

“I do think we are more willing than ever to respect people’s differences,” she said. “Not only that, but to stand up, to call our peers out, to be at events like this. For me, I see a lot of frustration because we do feel like it’s one step forward and 50 steps back.

“All we can really do is exercise our right to protest and to gather and to show up here, today, and fight against this,” she said. “We’re not going to continue to have history push us back.”

Branford resident Tom Laurenson, 73, addressed the crowd. As he stood on the stage he noted the flags flying high on the pole next to him.

“Up there is the flag of Ukraine,” he said. “We all know what they’re fighting for. What we are fighting for is every bit as important and that fight must be fought with just as much vigor.”

“There are so many men who don’t seem to be too energized by it,” he added. “I think they should be.”

This is an issue that every single person should be concerned about said state Rep. Sean Scanlon, D-Guilford.

“What’s at stake is not a women’s issue, it’s an American issue,” he said.

“It’s about health care. It’s about our rights as people. They are under attack and we must stop that.”