Across the region and across the state Monday evening, the Indiana National Organization for Women held vigils in support of abortion rights in advance of the state’s near-total ban on abortions slated to take effect Tuesday, though there was a glimmer of hope for reproductive rights supporters.
JoAnn Mosby, of Valparaiso , and Deb Rakers, of Burns Harbor, have been protesting abortion bans for 50 years.
Behind Mosby and Rakers, longtime NOW member and Chesterton resident Margaret Willis gave the crowd a history of reproductive rights in America. “It’s essential for us that we gather like this,” she said. “That we know that we’re not alone. We’re not a few. We’re the majority.”A hefty police presence ensured there were no disturbances to the vigil, and there were no signs of opposition, either among the dozens of attendees or those driving by.
Willis isn’t convinced. “When they claim to be protecting life, they only mean an embryo, not a woman, or her family,” she said after telling the crowd that the FBI says one in four American woman are the victims of rape or sexual assault, and that the leading cause of death of pregnant women is murder by their partners, or that the majority of the 17% of children living in poverty do so in maternal-supported households.
“It brings home the idea that every community is impacted,” said Julie Storbeck, president of both the Indiana and Northwest Indiana Chapters of NOW. “Doctors are shutting down their practices because of these abortion bans,” she added, gesturing toward the surrounding streets. “We don’t go to the Statehouse to have our babies.”
In addition to Valparaiso, NOW held events in Michigan City, South Bend, Ft. Wayne, Indianapolis and Bloomington, as well as Crown Point. “I marched in 1973 on this issue,” Pam Putzel told the crowd. “Here I am at the age of 73 and we’re still fighting the same ... battle. When will we be heard permanently? Women’s rights are everybody’s rights.”
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