'Stand up and fight back': Dozens gather in Burlington to protest overturn of Roe v. Wade
Morgan Manley was about 13 weeks pregnant when a medical screening revealed that the life she had been so excited to bring into the world was not viable.
Fighting back tears, Manley recalled the events of 2019 to a group of more than three dozen people who had gathered Tuesday outside the Des Moines County Courthouse to protest the U.S. Supreme Court's decision overruling the federal right to abortion, leaving it instead in the hands of the states to decide.
Manley said she was faced with two options: continue her pregnancy until she either miscarried or delivered a dead fetus, or get an abortion. She chose the latter.
"Abortion was my only option to start the healing process and to decide whether to continue to grow our family or not," she said.
She had to wait a week before she could schedule the procedure, bringing her into her second trimester. The timing meant she couldn't take the abortion pill and instead had to have a medical procedure.
"Because we were able to choose that option, I was able to heal faster and I was able to go on to have a healthy son afterwards. And that was my choice," she said.
It's a choice she fears won't be available to women in Iowa for much longer under the so-called "hearbeat bill" signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds in 2018 that the governor has requested by reexamined by the courts, who deemed it unconstitutional before it could go into effect.
"The same choice that right now, I probably wouldn't have here in Iowa because the fetus still had a heartbeat, because I was already in my second trimester and they would have probably just told me to wait, and I would have miscarried or delivered a stillborn baby," Manley said.
Manley was among more than a dozen people, the majority of whom were women, who shared with strangers their traumas and worries, but also words of support and encouragement in hopes of calling to attention the importance of voting, access to abortion and the right to bodily autonomy. It was the first of two Girls Just Want To Have Fundamental Rights protests put on Tuesday by a group of Burlington area women.
"I'm angry, not just for myself, but for my daughter, for my nieces, for my sisters and my mother," organizer Shelby Kuntzweiler told fellow protesters carrying signs with phrases such as "Angry women make change" and "I wish my uterus shot bullets so the government wouldn't regulate it."
"I'm angry for my son, for my nephews, for my brother and for my father," Kuntzweiler continued. "I'm angry for all of you standing out there listening to me speak. I'm angry for all of those who wished to join us today but couldn't. I'm angry even for those not on our side. I'm angry because this isn't just about abortion. It's about our rights as humans being stripped away."
As attendees took turns speaking into a pink megaphone, vehicles passed by honking their horns, many in support of the protesters but at least two in opposition, as indicated by lewd hand gestures and verbal insults. From the parking lot of the Burlington Public Library, a man in a ball cap shouted the words "baby killers." Those attending did their best to brush it off.
Tenyshia Redd, one of the event organizers, shared her own story. She had not had an abortion, but it was a choice she narrowly escaped after she was raped.
"When I was 18, I was drugged and raped by three people I considered to be my best friends," she said. "I'll spare you guys the details, but I will say that I was one of the lucky ones who didn't end up pregnant by their abuser."
Redd said she doesn't know what she would have done had she gotten pregnant as a result of the assault, but she said she believes the Supreme Court's decision to reverse the constitutional protection of abortion has made that decision for plenty of women already, including a 10-year-old girl in Ohio who had to travel out of state to get an abortion after she was raped.
"I would have had to have birthed a child that I was forcefully impregnated with, or I would have faced prosecution," she said.
"This is basically a direct war on women's bodies. It's stripping us of fundamental rights, and that is essentially giving threat to all human rights. If we allow them to continue to take rights as women, they're going to continue on to trans rights and same-sex marriages and so forth."
Others spoke about the lack of support for children already born.
Jennifer Kimble is a foster parent who normally takes in teenaged girls.
"These girls are my girls, but there is such a need just for teenagers now, we're going to bring in more babies?" she said, her tone incredulous. "Where are all the foster parent applications? Where are all the applications to be parents?
"I'm technically full capacity, but I get calls weekly: 'Can you take in a couple more teens? We've called 300-some different foster parents in the state of Iowa and no one, no one will take these teens. ... We need to love the kids we have now. We need to love the kids who don't have parents who love them unconditionally."
Lisa McPherson, a lactation counselor and birth doula who supports women throughout their pregnancies, childbirth and postpartum care, expressed concern about the possibility of the Supreme Court's decision putting the health of the fetus over the health of women. She said legislation that would help families would more effectively reduce abortions than will anti-abortion laws.
"They're not supporting moms, they're not supporting babies, they're not supporting families with their legislation," she said. "We need to support moms with paid maternity leave. We need lactation support. We can't even find friggin' formula in this country half the time right now, so if we want to support moms and babies, let's actually support moms and babies, and if you need some ideas, Allison's sign here is great."
McPherson gestured toward a sign held by Allison Reichert, one of the organizers of the protest, that listed free contraception, sex education, universal health care, paid family leave, welfare funding, ending housing insecurity, closing the wage gap and funding education as policies to reduce abortions.
Teri Holterhaus, an instructor at Fort Madison High School, said she used to see abortions as an unnecessary form of birth control, but her view began to change as Iowa diverted money away from organizations that provide reproductive health care services and contraception, effectively forcing closures, including in Burlington.
"They shut down those Planned Parenthoods. They shut down mental health facilities. They shut everything down so we have no options," she said. "We have nothing around here. Iowa City's our closest area (for abortions). We have to get funding for these things. We have to get funding for women."
Mackenzie Rainwater, a 16-year-old from Fort Madison, said she learned about school shootings long before she and her classmates were taught about reproductive anatomy.
"This is something so important to me, as I'm only 16 years old and I have to grow up in a country where guns have more rights than me," she said. "We started doing school shooting drills probably when I was in first grade, and I would just like to compare that I have never had a sex ed class (that taught about sex)."
Instead, she said, students learned about reproductive anatomy but not about sex itself.
Others spoke vehemently about the lack of rights women had over their own bodies even before the Supreme Court's decision.
When Anita Bachtell needed a hysterectomy, she had to have her husband's permission. Other women who spoke faced the same hurdle before they could get their tubes tied.
"It is not just about abortion," Bachtell said. "It is about all of our reproductive health rights. Any right to our own body. This is just step one. They are not going to stop here. We have to take control, and we have to take it back."
After all who wanted to speak had done so, Reichert led attendees in a chant:
"Reproductive rights are under attack. What do we do?" she asked.
"Stand up and fight back," the crowd responded.
Editor's note: This report has been corrected to attributed a medically needed abortion to Morgan Manley.
Michaele Niehaus covers business, development, environment and agriculture for The Hawk Eye. She can be reached at mniehaus@thehawkeye.com.
This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: Burlington crowd protests abortion decision, encourages voting