2021 Women’s March rallies are held across the Lehigh Valley, with some pushback (PHOTOS)

With slogans on signs and in chants, advocates demonstrated for access to abortion on Saturday across the Lehigh Valley and across the country.

The Women’s March demonstrations come days before the start of a new term for the US Supreme Court, which will determine the future of abortion law in the United States, after President Donald Trump’s appointments of judges strengthened conservative control of the Supreme Court.

They also came a day after President Joe Biden’s administration asked a federal judge to block the country’s most restrictive abortion law, which has banned most abortions in Texas since early September.

It is one of a series of cases that will give the nation’s divided Supreme Court an opportunity to uphold or overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that made abortions legal for generations of American women.

“Women’s rights are human rights,” said Fran Ciurczak of Bethlehem Ward, New Jersey. “And why are we still protesting this shit?”

She was among about 100 people in Easton participating in a march that passed through the well-attended Easton Garlic Fest. “I was there a million years ago, some of us protested that shit and it shouldn’t happen all these years later,” Ciurczak said.

At a rally in Bethlehem at 10 a.m., several hundred, possibly even more than 1,000, people gathered in Payrow Plaza. Earlier versions of the women’s march and other protests took place in the public square between the town hall and the library, including a small version of the global climate strike a week earlier.

Chrissie Skibell of Great Falls, Virginia could have gone to the much, much larger National Women’s March in Washington, DC in 2021. “But my sister said we need votes in this small town too,” said Skibell.

In Allentown, a counter-protest sponsored by the Northampton County Republican Committee drew a few dozen people outside the Lehigh County Courthouse, a corner between Fifth and Hamilton Streets, from about twice as many participants in the Women’s March.

“Pro-Roe” and “My life, my choice”, chanted Alicia Vandersluis from Allentown when she first shared a sidewalk with anti-abortionists. She exchanged brief words with a man who held a weathered billboard with pictures of tiny, bloody fetuses. He declined to give his name to reporters because he didn’t trust the media.

“Women have the right to safe health care, it is our human right to safe health care and physical autonomy,” said Vandersluis. “Laws shouldn’t dictate our doctors and our lives. There’s a HIPAA law, they shouldn’t know what’s wrong with us. If HIPAA doesn’t protect us, what the hell is it doing? “

On behalf of those who oppose abortion, Anna Gidosh of the Whitehall Ward said pregnant women considering an abortion should be aware of alternatives like Bright Hope Pregnancy Support Centers, which offer free maternity housing and help with finding work and necessities.

“There are many women who regret abortion,” said Gidosh. “I know young adults who have gone to Planned Parenthood in the past few months and said they regret their abortions, that they wish they hadn’t had these abortions.”

Taking up the call from proponents of abortion access to respect women’s rights, Gidosh said, “There are so many prenatal women who have no voice at all, they are not even considered, and they have uterus at some point Point in the development of the fetus. “

Arthur Garcia of Allentown said anti-abortionists are also working to help women in an unwanted pregnancy know about adoption and other alternatives. He spoke to a reporter after asking two men to leave the counter protest for coming openly with semi-automatic rifles with additional 30-round clips attached to body armor over their chest and “Pro-Life “Flags in hands.

“I’ve been to women’s marches and they like to use pepper spray differently than for self-defense,” explains one of the men.

“It’s more of a deterrent and all. We really hope and pray like we don’t have to use it, ”said the other, before agreeing to Garcia to put the guns back in her car and before a reporter had a chance to ask for their names. Both had described themselves to Garcia as combat veterans.

“Sorry, guns and pro-life are incompatible,” Garcia had told them before telling a reporter, “I am committed to the pro-life movement. I see abortion as murder in the sense that we kill innocent people. I see it as a business and the people who run the business do it for the money regardless of moral issues.

In Bethlehem, Grace Burrow of Nazareth said demonstrations for the right to abortion were a way for her to exercise her autonomy and to speak up: “I’m 17 and laws are being made against me and my body and this is a way for show me up to do this and change that. “

Lisa Ingle from Bethlehem is a nurse and Christian and spent a large part of the morning rally with a sign that read “Freedom is gender neutral”.

“I believe we need to protect the rights of women, especially marginalized women,” said Ingle, adding that laws do not stop abortion but make it more dangerous. “Banning abortion only means banning safe legal abortion. … I believe everyone’s life is precious, including that of mothers. “

A group from the Allentown Women’s Center, an abortion clinic, attended the rally in Bethlehem. A staff member at the center, Cynthia Rodriguez, put hangers on a sheet of white paper. A sign that said “Future Surgical Devices” and she put on a show by tipping red paint on it, symbolizing blood and the death of women from botched abortions.

She admitted that some would find the portrayal harsh, “but that’s exactly what we need” to illustrate the dilemma, she said.

In addition to the rally, Sheena Guthrie from Bethlehem watched her daughters Beatrice and Rebecca play. All three were disguised as Supreme Court judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an advocate of women’s rights who died in September 2020.

“I think it is important that we are here for these things and there are large numbers of people who are interested in these things,” Guthrie said, “so when this fight comes to Bethlehem our leaders will know. “

In Easton, when protesters gathered in Scott Park, it was agreed that access to abortion should not be a man’s choice and that there are no laws governing male reproductive choices. “Vasectomies prevent abortions,” read some participants on the back of T-shirts.

Kristin Horstman, in Easton with her son Brendan, 19, asked the march organizer Tiffinie Pesuti from East Stroudsburg how far along she was in her pregnancies when she first knew she was expecting. Almost in the second trimester, the answer came.

“I was 10 weeks old when I found out I was pregnant with him,” said Horstman, commenting on Texas law that “allows a person to have an abortion for at least six weeks.”

“Most women don’t know after six weeks that they are pregnant,” said Kristin Horstman from Phillipsburg. “After six weeks you don’t even miss a period.”

Sherri Harstine of Easton said it was impossible for Texas law to be passed nearly 50 years after Roe v. Wade should have become law.

“Everyone has a reason for it,” she says. “Whether you believe in abortion, whether you believe in abortion, everyone has a right to choose their own way of thinking.”

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Kurt Bresswein can be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com.

Steve Novak can be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.