Women Share Abortion Experiences At Roe v Wade Protest in Wenatchee
The event drew a crowd of pro-choice protestors as well as a handful of counter-protestors – including one with a bullhorn
*Trigger warning: this post contains references to sexual assault and abortion that may be disturbing or painful for some readers.
Approximately 150 pro-choice protestors gathered in Memorial Park in Wenatchee at 5 pm on Saturday, May 14. They were there to listen to women share their abortion experiences and protest the potential overturn of the historic Roe v Wade decision, which gives a woman the right to choose if she wants an abortion.
It was a part of a nationwide protest called “Bans Off Our Bodies” that saw activists and protestors in towns and cities across the US get out to speak out against the contents of a recently-leaked draft of an opinion penned by Justice Samuel Alito. In it, the Supreme Court Justice lays out a case for overturning Roe v Wade.
The speakers stood on the steps of the Chelan County Courthouse and recounted their abortion stories, all of which were painful and personal. All but one spoke anonymously.
They were sharing their stories in hopes of bringing awareness to the realities a woman facing that choice has to make.
As the women spoke, an anti-abortion counter protestor shouted through a bullhorn in a vain attempt to drown out what the women were saying.
The first speaker was Chloe, one of the main organizers of the local Bans Off Our Bodies protest. I have isolated each story and am posting them in their entirety so no context is lost.
‘They Don’t Care About Life. They Care About Money and Control’
“Equality is guaranteed by our Constitution. It’s not something people should have to ask for and it’s not something people should have to fight for,” she said. “And it should be at our discretion whether or not we as people who are able to birth a child should have the right to be equal to those who can’t.”
The rest of the stories were shared anonymously through a Google form the folks at the YWCA of North Central Washington set up and read by volunteers.
You can watch each of those in order below.
Each of these stories was powerful and intensely personal. I want to commend the women who shared them. It had to be challenging, but there is strength in solidarity, and stories like these are more common than many of us would like to admit.
I’d encourage you to take a few minutes to watch each and consider the women sharing these experiences and why they chose to do so now.
I found it very telling that as these women spoke, a man with a bullhorn tried to shout them down and talk over them. He failed, but you can hear him faintly in most of the recordings above in the background audio.
How the crowd of mostly women reacted to him is also very telling. Organizers repeatedly urged attendees not to engage with the anti-abortion counter protestors and reminded the crowd assembled to pick up after themselves.
It was a pretty civilized affair and model for how to organize a peaceful protest.
My Two Cents
Although I often write in the first person and don’t hesitate to weigh in on the issues as I see fit, this is not one of those times. This is narrative journalism, not a self-indulgent autobiography, online diary, or vapid thinkpiece.
The women who shared their experiences should be the focus of this piece, not me.
As the son of a single mother and father of four children, including three daughters, I will say I don’t take kindly to men who are comfortable talking over or shouting down women.
I’ll also go on record and say that my wife and I had the privilege of deciding exactly how many kids we wanted and when we wanted to have them. So I cannot identify with the fear, loneliness, and desperation those women must have felt when facing what must have been one of the hardest decisions of their lives.
I have no judgment for those women – only empathy.
As I gathered up my gear and walked away from the park with my family, I thought of the lyrics of “Unwed Fathers” by my favorite songwriter, John Prine.
In it, he sums up the monumentally unfair situation many women find themselves in when faced with an unwanted pregnancy:
“From a teenage lover, to an unwed mother
Kept undercover, like some bad dream
While unwed fathers, they can't be bothered
They run like water, through a mountain stream”
If you would like to learn more and support the YWCA of North Central Washington, you can visit their website here.
Thank you for being the only real journalism outlet in the valley. I was too weak to tell my story myself, so as the anonymous "Amalia," I started mine with a quote from Ani DiFranco's "Lost Woman Song." After describing her abortion ("a relatively easy tragedy") she writes "The profile of our country looks a little less hard nosed, but you know that picket line persisted and that clinic's since been closed." That was 1990, FFS.
I wanted very much to be there, but we are in the process of moving. So glad you covered this, Dominick! Very grateful for the women who courageously shared their personal stories!