Eureka Springs held a boisterous rally on Sunday, January 22, to protest the overturning of the constitutional right to abortion established by the U.S. Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision 50 years ago. A New York Times article Sunday said, “Marches are planned in major cities such as Boston, Chicago and Miami, and smaller gatherings in towns and suburbs like Eureka Springs, Ark.; Durango, Colo.; and Johnstown, Penn.”
About 60 women, men and children gathered at Basin Park Sunday afternoon in cold, misty weather. But nothing was subdued about their vocal demands to restore women’s rights that were negated on June 24, 2022, when a U.S. Supreme Court dominated by Catholic justices overturned the Roe decision. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, one of six Catholics, voted to uphold Roe v. Wade.
Many of the protesters carried handmade signs including one that said, “Keep your rosaries off my ovaries.” Other signs said, “Guns have more rights than women,” “Abortion is healthcare,” “We won’t go back,” “My health is not your politics,” “Abort the court,” “Women’s rights are human rights,” “We won’t go quietly back,” “Not your body, not your decision,” “Freedom is for everybody,” and “I am the descendant of women who would not be burned.”
Judi Selle, who helped organize the rally, previously worked for Planned Parenthood in Wisconsin for many years. January 22 was always an important day for supporters of women’s rights because of the victory for women being able to control their reproduction. The 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade is also the first year since the dramatic turnaround that removed federal protections for abortion leaving it to states to decide. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia now have laws that protect access to abortion.
“We are in a terrible situation here in Arkansas for women to be able to control their own bodies and lives,” Selle said. “This is one of the only Constitutional rights in history that has been stripped away. Right now, it isn’t legal in Arkansas for a woman to have an abortion even in cases of rape, incest or carrying a fetus with birth defects who will not survive birth.”
Pregnancy can be life threatening. Arkansas has the fifth-highest rate of women dying in childbirth in the U.S., according to World Population Review.
“Women have a right to life, too,” Selle said. “And I’m not seeing the Arkansas legislature to step up to create a stronger safety net for women being forced to have children they didn’t want to have. There is a proposed House bill that will allow for prosecution when a person causes the death of an unborn child. It would allow prosecution of women who end a pregnancy and anyone who helps them.”
A local health professional said the law concerns her because a doctor can’t differentiate between a natural miscarriage and an abortion caused by taking medication. “I worry women could be prosecuted for having a miscarriage,” the nurse said. “A woman is already suffering physically and mentally, and then faces the traumatic possibility of being prosecuted.”
Selle said an exception to save the life of the mother is hard to obtain. “Doctors are terrified to help her unless she is really at death’s door,” she said.
“What would happen if a woman who already has several children is put in jail for having an abortion? What if she is a victim of domestic abuse? Would she lose her job? Would the children be put into a foster care system that is already overburdened?
“We don’t have the resources in this state to take care of situations like that,” Selle said.
Former Eureka Springs Mayor Kathy Harrison said she went to the rally because she would have died had it not been for an emergency abortion needed after she started miscarrying. She was in the fourth month of her second pregnancy, past the time when most miscarriages happen.
“I was bleeding profusely, was in extreme pain and was basically in labor,” Harrison said. “I was taken to hospital outside Tulsa, Okla., where I lived at the time. I had never heard of abortion. They told me that to save my life, to stop me from hemorrhaging, they had to do a D and C, which is one type of abortion procedure. It took quite a while to recover.
“It is amazing to me that anyone would legislate that a woman die because she is having a terrible miscarriage. Only a doctor can decide what is needed to save a woman’s life. That is why I attended the rally. It is amazing in modern society that any legislator would have a say about my personal well-being and my personal healthcare. It is an unbelievable situation that a woman could be lying there bleeding out and having a doctor afraid to do anything because of the possibility of losing their medical license.”
While Arkansas law allows an abortion to save the life of a mother, some doctors across the country in states with similar laws have said it puts them in a difficult decision that has sometimes led to them waiting for the woman to get more ill before doing the procedure instead of doing it in a timely manner.
“It is reprehensible that people without medical degrees could decide a woman’s healthcare,” said Harrison, who went on to give birth to three more children after the miscarriage.
“There was a great deal of energy, excitement and solidarity for our sisters throughout the state,” Selle said. “There were a lot of men there, too, and that was great. I was really happy about the younger women who showed up. I think we have a good group of people of all ages willing to step forward.”
Selle said abortion is ultimately more about control than the love of babies.
“It is the ultimate control weapon and now is being weaponized further by trying to make it a prosecutorial crime to have an abortion,” Selle said.
A signup sheet was passed around at the rally for people who want to be involved in helping stop more bills like the ones proposing prosecution of women who get an abortion or even someone who helps them.
“Arkansas is one of two states introducing that bill,” Selle said. “We have to meet with our elected representatives. There is legislation on the federal level to protect the rights granted under Roe v. Wade and legislation to ban abortion nationally. Our elected representatives need to hear from those of us who believe in a woman’s right to control her own body. What we really need is a state constitutional amendment that protects the lives of women, as what was done in Kansas.”