Before Donald Trump announced Brett Kavanaugh, who once attempted to block an undocumented teenager in government custody from receiving an abortion in Texas, as his pick to take Justice Anthony Kennedy’s spot in the Super Court, Trump made it very clear that his pick would swing the bench towards overturning Roe v. Wade. In light of that, activists have been working overtime to block Trump’s pick and make it known that they will continue to fight for choice and reproductive rights.
As part of the ongoing fight, people gather in New York City’s Union Square on Tuesday night to protest Brett Kavanaugh taking a seat in SCOTUS, and to urge New York’s legislature to arrange protections for Roe v. Wade. Joining the effort was gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon who took the stage with a wire hanger in hand —harkening to a time before Roe v. Wade as a symbol of the ramifications of criminalizing abortions —and told the crowd , “We must fight like hell in New York and across the country to preserve Roe v. Wade so that no woman will ever feel compelled to use something like this on herself again.”
According to The New York Times, Nixon went on to talk about her own mother’s illegal abortion and compelled the audience to fight so a woman never has to choose an unsafe method of terminating a pregnancy. “We must never, ever, ever, go back to a time when any woman feels she has to make this kind of a choice,” said Nixon. “And this is why we must fight.”
A wire hanger is something that women in this country were driven to use out of fear and desperation, performing abortions on themselves, often with devastating effects. We must never go back to a time when any women feels that she has to make this kind of a choice. #OneInFour pic.twitter.com/wu1qQ85elj
— Cynthia Nixon (@CynthiaNixon) July 11, 2018
Tuesday’s rally wasn’t the first time that Nixon spoke about her mother’s experience with abortion. In 20o9 she gave an interview to CNN that really amplifies how important this fight is for her. Nixon said,“My mother had an illegal abortion pre-1973, and it’s something that I would never want to face or want my daughter to be facing or any of her friends.”
Nixon’s mother’s reality, pre-1973, could turn out to be a reality for all of us if Trump gets his way. So join the rallies, call your senators, take action to #SaveSCOTUS and block Kavanaugh from helping SCOTUS propel us back to a time where wire hangers felt like an only option to women.
(via Gothamist , image: screencap)
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