By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — As the crowd that mustered at the corner of Jesup Road and Post Road East moved onto the Ruth Steinkraus Cohen Bridge on Sunday afternoon, their signs went up and cars started honking. 

Some 300 people gathered at the Mother’s Day rally in support of abortion rights, organized by DefenDemocracy of CT.

The event, like others around the nation, came after news, first reported by Politico, that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito had prepared a majority draft opinion indicating the court is poised to overturn the 1973 landmark decision in Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide.

In response, Gov. Ned Lamont on Thursday signed into law a measure, passed by the General Assembly, that protects medical providers here and women from other states who come to Connecticut for abortions. 

Connecticut’s law is said to the be the first of its kind nationwide. For a detailed report on abortion in the state, click here.

Lamont was on hand for Sunday’s event, calling the downtown bridge, which he’d visited several times previously for rallies on other issues, “the conscience of Connecticut.”

Other politicians at the rally included U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4, state Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, D-136, and First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker, a Republican.

Katy Sullivan of Norwalk said she came because she was overwhelmed by fallout from the leaked Supreme Court draft ruling.

“I feel like women are just being shoved back to be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen,” she said. “We need to just keep pushing and pushing. I’ve been fighting this all my life, and I’m tired of it.”

Karen Kramer, a Representative Town Meeting member from District 5, said, “We’re going back in time.”

“This is wrong,” she said. “Wrong.”

Signs read “No Country for Old Men,” “My Arms are Tired from Holding this Sign Since 1960” and “As a Girl I Hope That I Have As Many Rights As A Gun.”

The crowd chanted: “Hey hey, ho ho, GOP has got to go!” “Abortion is a human right!” We won’t go back!” and “My body, my choice!”

After demonstrators spent half an hour waving placards along the bridge, police closed Jesup Road and the crowd gathered to hear several speakers. 

“I know that we’re here with a lot of heavy hearts, and a lot of fear, and lot of anger,” said Darcy Hicks, the organizer from DefenDemocracy of CT. “Anger can be good because anger makes change, as long as we focus it.”

She introduced Lamont.

“Don’t get angry, let’s fight,” the Democratic governor said. “This is what it’s about, this is when we stand up, this what democracy is.”

He called Connecticut’s recent legislation “some of the toughest pro-choice laws in the country.”

“Texas keep your hands off our women, keep your hands off our doctors, keep your hands off our clinics,” Lamont said. 

“We’re not participating, we’re fighting back against that. They’ve got this vigilante justice where they’re trying to go after our doctors and our women, and that’s not going to happen in Connecticut, it’s not happening.”

“Nothing’s going to take away a woman’s right to choose, we’re going to fight every day for this,” Lamont said.

Blumenthal said that if Republicans regain congressional control in Washington, D.C., any law Connecticut passes to codify the Roe v. Wade decision could be pre-empted by a federal ban on abortion.

“We need to make sure that we elect pro-choice senators this November,” he said.

Himes also mentioned the elections this fall.

“Every single person running office in November needs to be asked, and needs to answer the question, will you stand,” he said. “And if the answer isn’t some version of I will go to the mat, I will work all day, I will work all night to preserve women’s liberties, they have no business in this great and free country.”

Dr. Janet Lefkowitz, a Westport native and now medical director of abortion services for Planned Parenthood in Alabama, said access to safe abortions is a human right.

She gave examples of obstacles women already face to obtaining abortions in some states.

“Health care has been under attack since Roe was enacted to ensure that a woman has a right to a safe abortion without government intervention, and we did not arrive at this point today without a gradual erosion of this ruling,” Lefkowitz said. 

Thane Grauel is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to Westport Journal. Learn more about us here.