New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
After Roe v. Wade ruling, dozens rally in Norwalk
NORWALK — Democratic politicians, women’s rights advocates and their supporters as well as families with young children stretched across the town green Saturday to express their outrage at the U.S. Supreme Court 6-3 decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
About a dozen speakers from the federal, state and local level shared what they’re doing or what they’ve done to protect women’s reproductive rights in Connecticut. But as they finished, they each warned that Connecticut’s safe access laws wouldn’t stand up if Congress enacts a national ban on abortion.
“This November, choice, reproductive rights, women’s rights will be on the ballot,” said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn, to the nearly 100 people who assembled. “The fact is if Republicans take control of the Senate and Mitch McConnell is leader, where’s he going to go? ... Mitch McConnell will lead to a national ban on abortion.”
He added, “So if you think you’re safe in Connecticut, no.”
Norwalk councilwomen Nora Niedzielski-Eichner and Dominique Johnson and their male counterpart Josh Goldstein organized the rally after the Supreme Court decision was handed down on Friday. Improptu rallies were held across the state and the country on Friday, both by pro-abortion and anti-abortion advocates.
Niedzielski-Eichner shared the same sentiments as many of the women who approached the microphone. Immediately following the decision she said she was sad. But when she woke on Saturday, she was angry and enraged.
Johnson said she realized sitting around the table with her partner and her family on Friday night that it was her time to fight like many women before her had done.
“They signaled to us yesterday that we’re coming for your families. We’re coming very much for the right to love. How unbelievable is that? We can’t love?” said Johnson, who is running for the state representative seat in District 143. “Love is what this is all about. Every act we make and into the future is an act of love.”