CLARION, Pa. (EYT) — The fire siren went off at noon in Clarion Borough just like every other Saturday. Still, on May 14th, it took on a more ominous presence as five handmaidens departed the Grace Lutheran Church to march to the front of the Clarion County Courthouse and offer their silent support for a rally in opposition to the impending Supreme Court ruling which would overturn Roe v. Wade.
Indivisible We Rise — West Central Pennsylvania hosted the “Bans Off Our Bodies” gathering as part of a nationwide Day of Action.
“The purpose is to draw attention to the facts about legalized abortion as an element of women’s healthcare and to call attention to what life was like pre-Roe,” said a prepared media alert. “The rally called upon our elected officials to do whatever it takes to support a woman’s right to be able to access a safe abortion as a healthcare choice.”
The “handmaidens” at the rally were patterned from The Handmaid’s Tale, an American dystopian television series created by Bruce Miller, based on the 1985 novel of the same name by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, according to Wikipedia.
A popular television series on Hulu, the plot features a dystopia following a Second American Civil War wherein an economic, totalitarian society subjects fertile women–called “Handmaids”–to child-bearing slavery.
Grace Lutheran Church was not affiliated with the event.
The event was hosted by Indivisible We Rise — West Central Pennsylvania as part of the Bans Off Our Bodies Day of Action, a cross-movement grassroots mobilization planned to demand lawmakers act urgently to defend a woman’s right to choose.
Rally speakers spoke of a woman’s choice with her own body, and some spoke of experiences as they or their friends dealt with having an abortion.
Clarion County Republican Committee Member Josh Bashline, of Clarion, stood on the opposite side of Main Street donning an “Adoption Not Abortion” sign.
“We’re here protecting the sanctity of life,” said Bashline. “We have a group across the street that their main goal is to end the filibuster and pack the Supreme Court, which would ruin the constitution.”
“When you pack the Supreme Court and you end the filibuster and just add people who agree with you, then it goes back and forth. The other side can do that and you end up like Venezuela that has 14 Supreme Court justices.”
Bashline was one of about 20 people who participated in a pro-life rally along Main Street in front of Veterans Memorial Park. Most of the pro-life supporters were carrying some type of sign promoting pro-birth or pro-life with the Bible quotes. There were some shouts from the competing rally and occasional singing of “Jesus Loves Me.”
Some drivers of cars and trucks on a busy main street also decided to offer their perspective on the subject, shouting “baby killers” or expletives.
(Photos below by Dave Cyphert of ProPoint Media Photography.)
