Women’s March offered one more chance to speak before election day
Published 12:10 am Tuesday, November 8, 2022
Delany Nelson, a UNC Charlotte student, describes an on-campus incident Oct. 10 in which students were subjected to enlarged pictures of alleged tissue from abortions at 10 weeks. Photo by Elisabeth Strillacci
As they walked along Fisher Street back toward Main Street, a few additional people joined Saturday's Women's March, and included in the crowd were several strollers with children who will be living with the impact of decisions the public will make on Tuesday. Photo by Elisabeth Strillacci
Ebony Rivers-Boyd, a candidate for the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education, said "my daughter is laughing and waving at you because everyone is laughing and waving at her, but what we do here today, and what we do Tuesday, affects her and all the little ones here." Photo by Elisabeth Strillacci
All who attended gathered for a group shot before stepping off at the corner of West Innes and Church Streets Saturday. Photo by Elisabeth Strillacci
Signs made the message clear over even the loudest traffic on Saturday as marchers gathered in front of Rowan County Administration offices. Photo by Elisabeth Strillacci
SALISBURY — A group of more than 50 gathered on the steps of the Rowan County Administration building on West Innes Street at noon Saturday to make one more effort to make their voices heard regarding women’s rights before Tuesday’s election.
In the crowd were several candidates, including Tangela Morgan, Ebony Rivers-Boyd and Scott Huffman. Morgan is running for N.C. Senate against incumbent Carl Ford; Huffman is running for U.S. House of Representatives against incumbent Dan Bishop; Rivers-Boyd is running for a seat on the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education.
The event, organized in part by Alissa Redmond, who owns the South Main Street Book Company and who is a former foreign service officer for the State Department, said it was another “opportunity to make our voices heard.” Redmond partnered with Salisbury Indivisible, Rowan Concerned Citizens, and Women for Community Justice to hold the “Protect Women’s Reproductive Health March and Rally” to amplify a nationwide response after the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v Wade and eliminate constitutional protections for abortion rights.
Several people spoke on the issue of Roe v Wade and women’s rights, including Samantha Haspel, who pointed out that cancer, of which she is a survivor, is much like the beginning of an embryo, in that it takes from a woman’s body but can sometimes cause severe problems. She related the story of a friend who was unable to attend Saturday but who remembers well the day she “almost died. Because she had been trying to get pregnant, and one day, she did — but the cells attached inside the fallopian tube. And at one point, it ruptured.” Haspel said the woman had to have emergency medical attention. “As much as she wanted that baby, it was not an embryo that they could transplant from the fallopian tube to the uterus. It was never going to become a baby, a life that would or could survive. But it could very well have caused her death. And if the laws many states have now were in place at that time, she may not have been able to get the immediate medical care she needed, and she would have died.”
Delaney Nelson, a student at UNC Charlotte, told those gathered about a harrowing incident on the college campus that occurred Oct. 10.
She said a religious group was allowed to demonstrate on campus grounds with enlarged photos of what they claimed were 10-week old aborted fetuses.
“Several of those holding the images shoved pamphlets in our hands, even when we tried to refuse,” she said. “They compared abortions to lynchings and to genocide. When we talked to the vice chancellor, all the school said was it is their right to free speech. But they used racial slurs, which they read but which they repeatedly said out loud, and they even followed us into the bathrooms, telling us we were going to hell if we did not change or repent.”
Nelson said the demonstration followed religious protests that had taken place on campus the week prior.
“I do understand free speech,” she said. “But students were confronted with graphic images that caused some extreme distress and emotional trauma. It just seems they crossed a line, especially following people into bathrooms and physically shoving things in our hands.” A call to the college had not been returned as of press time.
Jessie Blumenthal, who is an OBGYN, said she was compelled to attend Saturday’s event “as a way of underscoring the importance of maintaining the integrity of the physician/patient relationship. It is much more complicated than it is portrayed in ads.” Asked how she felt about candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz’s insistence that an abortion is between “a woman, her doctor and local politicians,” she simply said “absurd.”
Rivers-Boyd, a former teacher and a first-time candidate, brought her daughter in a stroller “because what we are doing today and what we do on Tuesday affect her and all the little ones here. It is imperative that we vote. And please remember to turn the ballot over — no matter where you live in Rowan, you can vote for a candidate for every seat that is on the ballot for the Board of Education.”
“I am your working class candidate,” said Huffman. “I have a 17-year-old daughter, and they are going to take her rights away from her. I am not going to let that happen.”
“Enough is enough,” said Morgan. “We should be concerned, but we should also be energized. We need to let them know we are fighting back; we will not back down.”
After having a chance for anyone interested in voicing their concerns, the group marched around Bell Tower Green, down Fisher Street to Main, to Innes then back to the county building.
