Pro-choice advocates plan to demonstrate at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Pike Place in Crawfordsville.
Event organizers ask participants to gather at noon at the courthouse, where they will discuss their plans for the event and then make their way a block south to Pike Place.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that protected reproductive health and ensured safe access to abortions. The ruling has sent shock waves across the country, spurring rallies and demonstrations in many communities.
Organizers of this local event believe abortions are health care and these decisions should be made between the patient and the doctor. The stripping away of the right to bodily autonomy terrifies them.
Dozens of pro-choice advocates showed up for a demonstration Wednesday outside the county courthouse, including 29-year-old Crawfordsville native Kara Riley, who held her two-month-old daughter, Jayne Riley, during the demonstration.
“As empowering as it is bringing my two-month-old daughter to these protests, it’s also really heartbreaking,” Riley said. “My daughter, born in 2022, should not be protesting for rights to her own body. This decision took us back 50 years, there’s no way I will stay quiet about that.”
Aaron Morrison of Crawfordsville is another pro-choice advocate.
“There is no universal agreement among major religions as to when life begins,” he said. “For example, while many Christians believe that life begins at conception, most Jews believe that life begins at first breath as a baby is being delivered. The first amendment of the Constitution preserves religious freedom. Why should one Christian interpretation of when life begins be imposed on everyone else?”
