Why hundreds showed up to State College’s rally for abortion rights — and what they said
Hours after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, revoking women’s constitutional right to an abortion, a steady stream of protesting students and residents filtered in Friday near the Allen Street Gates in downtown State College.
A handful gathered as early as 3 p.m. Four hours later, attendance had ballooned to several hundred, as sign-toting protesters spilled onto the Penn State campus and at least 100 stood across the street because space near the gates remained at a premium.
Cars honked their support. Protesters held cardboard posters in the air, such as “Keep your rosaries off my ovaries” and “No mandated motherhood.” Chants of, “Keep your laws off my body” could be heard at least a block away.
“I marched in the ‘80s for this. I have two daughters; I thought we were done,” said longtime resident Kathleen O’Connell, who spent a majority of the last 55 years in the Centre Region. “I thought we were there, and I’m so sad to be out here marching again — because of a politically twisted Supreme Court.”
Protesters consistently used words like “devastated,” “despair” and “angry” to describe their reaction to Friday morning’s announcement that 49 years of legal precedent had been overturned. They knew it was coming, of course — the draft opinion was leaked a month ago — but some described the Supreme Court’s landmark 6-3 ruling like waking up in a bad dream.
“I never believed it,” O’Connell added.
Starting the protest
Students Against Sexist Violence (SASV), a Penn State group, announced a 7 p.m. protest and march days ago — alongside eight other local groups — but at least a dozen protesters stood near the gates two hours prior. As the crowd grew, it became harder to hear speeches from organizers’ megaphones, but the high-energy atmosphere didn’t dissipate.
Instead, they chanted even louder. “My body,” one protester shouted. “My choice!” came the response. (One staggering counter-protester in a green shirt quipped, “Not anymore!”) “Women’s rights,” one person shouted. “Human rights!” came the group response.
Men and women stood shoulder-to-shoulder Friday, some still in high school and some with hair that turned gray long ago. One out-of-state woman came to see family but also wanted to watch the protest. Others worked at Penn State and wished to show their support. And some drove from other parts of Centre County to make sure their community was represented.
“This is something that affects so many people,” said Hannah Coslo, a rising senior at Bellefonte Area. “It’s important to find a sense of community, and I think it’s important people hear that community — so I felt like my voice needed to be a part of the collective to show that everyone, everywhere, has a reason to care.”
Counter-protesters appeared to number in the single-digits. Three kneeled near an intersection, holding rosaries and crucifixes. Another leaned on a 7-foot red cross, and another simply held a small sign that read, “Life wins.”
“They’re using their religion to justify choices for other people,” said Josephine DiNovo, a Penn State employee now weighing whether she wants to have children outside the U.S. “Just because it’s against your religion doesn’t mean that it’s wrong for other people. You shouldn’t get to make decisions for other people.”
March & controversy
The protest turned into a march around 7:30 p.m., when hundreds trailed two people holding an oversized red banner that read, “We Demand Abortion Rights For The Working Class And Poor!”
They plodded up Allen Street, as police helped safely block traffic, before finding their way on Fairmount Avenue, Garner Street and back to College Avenue. They also stopped at the State College Pregnancy Resource Clinic, which does not perform or refer abortions and is based on “Christian principles and values,” according to its website.
Organizers painted the clinic, which had several “No trespassing” signs staked in their yard, as a fake that deceived vulnerable pregnant women into thinking its services were more comprehensive than they actually were. One marcher, a teacher at Park Forest Middle School, interrupted an organizer to point out that, if people want to use that clinic — if they have Christian values — then they should have the right to that choice.
She was shouted down by a man wearing a blue handkerchief over his face, with chants drowning out her speech. When a reporter spoke with her, another marcher interjected while another questioned why the reporter seemingly spent so much time with her.
“I am saying that women’s bodies are always legislated, and I am here because my mother had more rights than my daughter will,” she said. “I am completely in tandem with the message here today; however, I am not in unison with a man telling me, ‘You don’t get to speak.’”
(The teacher later reached out to the CDT, asking her name not be used when she felt threatened during her walk back to her car.)
After her confrontation, a handful of marchers left. But they weren’t the only supporters who took exception to some of the tactics and opinions expressed Friday.
State College Area School District board member Peter Buck showed up at the Allen Street Gates with several others in the hopes of registering people to vote. But he left not long after arriving, after a man wearing a blue handkerchief as a mask repeatedly told protesters not to register.
Buck said he didn’t want to stay with an organizing group — which also chanted expletives against the police — that he couldn’t support.
“People who are organizing an event that is all about people’s voices — and particularly women’s voices and their autonomy and their power — to tell people not to register to vote and to actively interfere with their ability to register to vote, is to interfere with one of the most absolutely necessary things for a Democracy,” Buck said. “It is absolutely nuts.”
Looking ahead
Overall, those who stood in front of the Allen Street Gates for any length of time simply wanted one thing — their constitutional rights back.
They’re not alone. Protests raged across the U.S. on Friday, ranging from New York to San Francisco. Globally, allies also chided the U.S. Supreme Court decision — from U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson labeling it a “big step backwards” to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calling it “horrific.”
According to the latest Pew Research Center survey, even a 61% majority of U.S. adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 37% think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.
“It’s very personally important because I have a uterus and this is a basic human right,” Robin Moussa, a Penn State alum and local resident, said matter-of-factly. “Abortion is health care.”
Some felt the solution was to organize and vote in greater numbers come November. Others didn’t have a solution, at least not right away, and simply wanted a community that could share in their heartache.
For now, at least, many needed to grieve first before they could move on.
“Today, specifically, is about sharing that grief after the decision was made,” said Cecilia Mazzocco, Bellefonte Area’s student council president. “It’s supposed to be about support today. It’s supposed to be about coming together, commiserating — and then moving forward.”
