Gorge Womxn's March to Protest Texas's Restrictive Abortion Law
Pictured: Rosie Strange leads the The 1st Annual Womxn’s March in 2017. The march took place in downtown The Dalles following a heavy snow.
Activists in the Columbia River Gorge, across the nation and around the world will be marching in support of women’s rights and reproductive justice on Saturday, Oct. 2nd in solidarity with the Washington DC Women's March.
Locally, Gorge activists will host the Columbia River Gorge’s 4th annual Gorge Womxn’s March at the Hood River Library on Saturday at 11 a.m. Gorge activists said the event would be ‘COVID cautious’. Masks will be required at the event, and hand sanitizing will be available. The event will include a march through downtown, public art, activist chants, and the sharing of abortion stories.
Focusing in on the Recent Passage of a Restrictive Abortion Law in Texas
From the Washington DC Women’s March website:
“When the Supreme Court rejected an emergency request to block Texas’s abortion ban, they effectively took the next step towards overturning Roe v. Wade.
Simply put: We are witnessing the most dire threat to abortion access in our lifetime. That’s why we’re marching in every single state and in our nation’s capital Washington, D.C. - on Oct. 2nd before the Supreme Court reconvenes. We need to send an unmistakable message about our fierce opposition to restricting abortion access and overturning Roe v. Wade before it’s too late,” the website states.
Local activists wanted to be clear that the march was not just for cisgender women, but for all people with uteruses, and allies that support the right to bodily autonomy and the right to chose to have an abortion.
“We used the term Womxn’s March instead of Women’s March because we want to be inclusive of nonbinary and transgender folx and their identities,” said Rosie Strange, Gorge Womxn’s March organizer, “With this event, we want to create a safe space for all people to engage in advocating for bodily autonomy, and abortion access for those who need it. We hope to create space for people to share their voice and heal together.”
“We must stand in solidarity with those in Texas who are living under this unjust and oppressive law that restricts its citizen's access to abortions,” said Strange. “We feel abortion and bodily autonomy is an essential healthcare right.”
This year the march’s focus is taking a stand against the passage of Texas’s anti-abortion law, which bars people with uteruses from receiving abortion services after just 6 weeks (42 days) of pregnancy. It is the most restrictive abortion law in the nation.
With such a short amount of time allowed for pregnancy detection and the current stress being placed on the healthcare industrial complex to meet pandemic demands, many fear that getting into a clinic to receive care in less than six weeks may be an impossible task for many people. According to the National Health Service (NHS) a normal menstrual cycle lasts between 21-40 days. Many individuals with uteruses, including youth, older people approaching menopause, trans and nonbinary individuals, don’t have a regular 28-day menstrual cycle, making detection of pregnancy and scheduling of an appointment in the first 6 weeks (42 days) extremely difficult.
Many activists fear this law introduces an unnecessary barrier to safe legal abortions that will force people to travel out of the state to find much-needed healthcare.
Strange said It was important to note that those forced to travel to seek abortion services included those with health conditions, which make it unsafe for them to be pregnant.
“There are lots of reasons people need access to safe legal abortion,” said Strange. She also pointed to personal, financial, or family planning reasons, as well as to victims who have suffered rape, sexual assault, domestic violence and incest.
For youth and individuals experiencing poverty and/or houselessness, traveling out of state to receive healthcare (especially a procedure that may or may not require pre and post-procedural exams) simply isn’t financially feasible.
According to one study, over half of the people who need abortions live below the federal poverty level. That means restrictive abortion laws disproportionantely affect poor people and people of color. One Texas activist even said the new Texas abortion law could ‘force people into intergenerational poverty.
High cost of care, poor local availability of services and restrictive laws are just three of the many barriers to accessing safe abortion named by the World Health Organization (WHO). Other barriers to accessing safe abortion in the United States and worldwide include social stigma, conscientious objection of health-care providers and unnecessary requirements, such as mandatory waiting periods, mandatory counselling, provision of misleading information, third-party authorization, and medically unnecessary tests that delay care.
Activists have also warned that women who are denied abortion are more likely to seek out unsafe and illegal abortion clinics, and experience a number of serious mental, behavioral, and physical health problems. Such health problems include end of pregnancy complications that result in eclampsia or death, anxiety, chronic physical health problems such as chronic pain and gestational hypertension, loss of self-esteem, and loss of aspirational life plans. In addition, women who were denied abortions were more likely to become tethered to abusive spouses or partners and experience a higher risk of domestic violence.
Abortion is currently a legal form of healthcare in the United States but has long been a controversial subject in both religious and political circles, and the new Texas law means different things to different people.
Anti-abortion leaders have hailed Texas's new abortion law as a massive victory. And the passage of the law sparked similar legislation to be proposed in Florida by anti-abortion legislators last week. However womxn's rights activists have said the passage of the law in September is a slap in the face to victims of rape as well as every individual's right to bodily autonomy, whether they identify as a woman, man, nonbinary, or transgender individual. They also warned that the new law paved the way for overturning the famous 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which solidified women’s right to choose.
“We feel that the passage of this law in Texas has laid the groundwork for conservatives to overturn Roe v. Wade,” said Strange. “We have to talk about the implications of that.”
So far 47 people have RSVP’d to join the 4th annual Gorge Womxn’s March although several hundred people are expected to show as the event has continued to grow in popularity in the community over the years.
Pictured: A large crowd in attendance at the 2018 Womxn’s March.
“I feel like our past events have helped to create a lot of conversations about womxn’s rights, safety, and healthcare,” said Strange. “It’s also helped to create community. After our first march in 2017, several groups were formed including the Gorge ReSisters and Columbia Gorge Women’s Action Network.”
This year local youth are expected to be in high attendance at the event.
“The youth coming this year have expressed a lot of fear of what’s coming. They are afraid of their rights and freedoms being taken away,” said Strange. “They want to push us to be aware that things are changing. As activists, we need to listen to the youth and create inclusive spaces for them to be included in the conversation. ”
“I’m attending this year’s Womxn’s March because I think it’s important for other youth to know what’s happening in Texas and so that we can stand up for Womxn’s rights,” said Thea Brevard, local youth activist, age 16.
“I think it’s important for youth to be involved in social justice activism because it’s about making the world a better place. And by starting early in our lives we have more time to work towards the peaceful world we want to live in,” said Melanie Glatter, age 16, another local gorge youth activist.
To become a speaker or volunteer at Gorge Womxn’s March, email gorgeresisters@gmail.com
