EASTON, CT — A rally defending women’s reproductive rights attracted close to 70 people, who gathered in front of the Morehouse Pavilion on a sunny, fall afternoon Sunday to listen to speeches from Democrats, including elected officials, candidates running in state elections, and town party leaders.
Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, 20 states banned or restricted abortion procedures earlier in a pregnancy than the federal law had allowed, and the issue is a hot topic in elections across the country.
Beth Cliff, of Easton, who is running against incumbent Republican, Tony Scott, for Connecticut’s 112th District seat, representing all of Monroe, half of Easton and a portion of Trumbull, organized Sunday’s event.
Among the high profile guests were Governor Ned Lamont, Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz and U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Connecticut. Bysiewicz said a “MAGA Supreme Court” took women’s rights away with the Dobbs case overturning Roe v. Wade.
“We knew it was coming,” she said, “but it was shocking in the history of our nation, because our nation has always been about expanding rights, not taking them away.”
The Dobbs ruling put decisions on abortion rights in the hands of the states.
In 14 states with abortion bans, Bysiewicz said an estimate says more than 65,000 rape related pregnancies have occurred.
“Can you imagine being one of those women?” she asked. “And we’ve heard so many terrible stories about women bleeding out in their cars or hospital waiting rooms, because they can’t get the help that they need.”
Bysiewicz said Connecticut has a Roe law and she praised the leadership of the Lamont Administration and the Connecticut Legislature for enacting the Reproductive Freedom Act, which allows people from states where abortion is illegal to come here for care, while protecting Connecticut health care providers, because the other states want to make it illegal for them to treat these out-of-state patients.
“There are a lot of people who say, “uh, Connecticut’s a blue state. We have a Roe law. We don’t really have to worry about it,” Bysiewicz said of the anti-abortion movement.
But she warned the crowd that the “MAGA extremists” will not stop there. She said they have tried to ban Mifepristone, an abortion medication that terminates pregnancies and is used in 65 percent of abortions in Connecticut.
“The Supreme Court said when they have the right plaintiff, they will ban that medication,” Bysiewicz said. “They also want to ban IVF fertility treatments. So many couples in our country have relied upon that. By the way, that is also an attack on LGBTQ+ couples.”
In Connecticut, she said some legislators will try to overturn or decrease protections afforded under the Roe law, “which is why this election is so important.”
Political newcomers
Cliff, who said she has been an avid feminist since high school, was among the several candidates running for state seats, who participated in the rally.
“You may not be able to tell now, but I was a big athlete,” she told the crowd. “I was field hockey, basketball, lacrosse all through high school. I was Division 1 lacrosse for four years, a letter winner in college — and what that means for you is, I’m tough and I’m competitive and we’re gonna win this thing.”
Other candidates included Rob Blanchard, of Fairfield, who is challenging longtime Republican senator, Tony Hwang, in the 28th Senatorial District, and Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox, who is facing Republican, Chris Carrena, for the 22nd Senatorial District, which includes Monroe, Trumbull and Bridgeport.
Gadkar-Wilcox, an attorney who teaches human rights and constitutional law at Quinnipiac University, said she was shocked when news of the Dobbs decision leaked, because three Republican justices declined to overturn Roe v. Wade in a 1992 decision, expressing the belief such a decision would bring illegitimacy upon the court.
“When the actual opinion came out, I sat down and cried, not only as a woman, because people have died, but as a constitutional scholar,” Gadkar-Wilcox said of the Dobbs ruling. “What am I supposed to teach? When I put the right of privacy on the board, I put a question mark now. For the first time, students started to speak about justices as Republican and Democratic justices for a body that is supposed to be independent of politics.”
She said the states now have to step up and make sure legislation is in place to protect other fundamental rights, such as the right to privacy.
“To be clear, they’re not just talking about the right to abortion,” Gadkar-Wilcox said. “This is an agenda to go after all of the related rights under what we call substantive due process, and the right to privacy, including the right of where to send your children to school, the right to make medical decisions about your own body, the right to marriage.”
Gadkar-Wilcox said Connecticut’s legislature must take the next step to solidify citizens’ rights in the state constitution to protect it. “I look forward to doing that,” she said.
Gadkar-Wilcox noted how women account for more than half of Connecticut’s population, yet only make up one-third of the membership of the state senate.
“Things we hold sacred, like choice and banning assault weapons, are on the ballot,” Blanchard said. “They are because the people we send to Hartford are going to be the backstop, no matter what bad Supreme Court decisions come down and who is president.”
‘Abortion care is health care’
State representatives already serving included Anne Hughes, D-135th, and Sarah Keitt, D-134th.
“I’m sick of members of the public having to trot out and share their own trauma and lived experience, so that we care enough to enact common sense policies,” Hughes said. “I’m sick and tired of that.”
She also expressed frustration over how much effort is put into ensuring access to firearms in this country, prioritizing that over women’s reproductive rights. “We have had enough,” Hughes said.
“Connecticut may be blue,” Keitt said. “We may have abortion protections, but let’s not fool ourselves, MAGA is alive and well here in Connecticut. A Trump victory will only feed into their delusions and their bid for power, that they can continue on their anti-woman, anti-trans, anti-family agenda.”
“We need to stand up now and show them who we are — that we believe that abortion care is health care and health care is a human right,” she continued. “We need to show them we will not go back to a time when women died in back alley abortions, from botched maternal care and lack of access to preventative health care, which includes birth control.”
Keitt said over 70 percent of Connecticut voters believe reproductive rights are human rights.
Back to the ’50s
Himes accused many Republicans of using distractions, such as the conspiracy theories swirling around FEMA’s efforts to help residents impacted by Hurricane Helene, so people do not pay attention to a “larger project, which is deeply un-American.”
He said the country was founded on the principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, adding, “they are taking those freedoms away. They are excluding the marginalized and the disenfranchised.”
He said they have a vision of a 1950s America.
“J.D. Vance says it, where a woman is in the home and her decisions are made by her husband and, if she’s not reproducing, his words, not mine, she’s not a woman in full,” Himes said of the Republican vice presidential candidate.
Himes said they want to go back to a time when Black Americans knew their place and did not vote and members of the LGBTQ+ community stayed in the closet or otherwise could lose their jobs, and when immigrants are demonized.
The Congressman led a chant, asking the crowd, “are we going back?” to which they shouted, “no.”
“I was watching the Vice Presidential Debate the other night and J.D. Vance is the most elegant liar I have ever heard,” Lamont said to laughter. “And when that son of a gun says, ‘I didn’t want to outlaw abortion. I never said that,’ and there are 30 videos saying that’s just what he said. That’s just what he wants to do. That’s just what Donald Trump will do.”
If Trump wins the election, Lamont said all he would have to do as president is tells the FDA he does not think Mifepristone is safe right now and the agency would take the drug off the market.
“We are the firewall,” the governor said. “We’ll do everything we can here in Connecticut to protect and expand our rights and make sure there’s opportunity for each and every one of our folks, regardless of race, color and creed, zip code, sexual orientation. That’s what Connecticut is all about. We gotta make sure that’s what America is all about as well. That’s what this election is about. God bless you all.”
Women rally
Rebecca Kelly, of Easton, brought her four-year-old daughter Reese, to the rally in her stroller. Kelly wore a white T-shirt with the message: “Mom by choice, for choice” and held a sign that said: “Don’t like abortions? Ignore them like you do school shootings.”
“I feel like there are people in our government who only care about controlling women’s bodies and not about what happens after,” she said of her reason for coming to the event.
Kelly said some people want to force a woman to have a baby, who cannot afford to raise one, then oppose the mother receiving welfare to help support her child after birth.
Reese wore a T-shirt that said, “My Momma will fight for my rights.”
Claire Wilkes, of Easton, held up a sign that said: “I didn’t sign up for The Handmaid’s Tale. Vote Blue.” The word “didn’t” was underlined and her poster had red handprints.
“It’s important,” she said of attending the rally, “because we’re not going back. We can’t take it for granted anymore that, even in Connecticut, people’s blue rights will be protected. It won’t be protected if Trump is president. They can lie all they want. Project 2025 is all laid out.”
Anne Partridge, of Easton, had a sign that said: “We won’t go back.” “I’m here for my two granddaughters,” she said. “They can’t vote yet.”
Sheila Weaver, of Easton, had several slogans on her sign, including: “Pro Choice;” My Body My Choice;” “Reproductive Rights Are Human Rights” and “Women’s Rights Are Human Rights.”
“I believe everything I say here,” she said, “and I’m from Kansas. Kansas, hear me roar.”
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