NORTHERN VALLEY AREA, N.J.—Abortion became a clarion call for women throughout the United States—and in the Northern Valley area—like never before after Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ellen Ivey signed anti-abortion legislation May 14 that many worry threatens more than 40 years of Roe v. Wade protections.
The strikingly restrictive ban makes it a felony for a doctor to perform or attempt an abortion during any stage of pregnancy. There is no exemption for cases of rape or incest.
The Alabama state Senate had approved the measure, 25–6, following a contentious floor debate.
On May 21, in response to Alabama’s ban and that of other states—39 states have some abortion restrictions, with Republican governors in Georgia and Missouri signing measures to curb abortions in the last week—Planned Parenthood called for a “Stop the Bans” day of action nationwide.
On the national scale, abortion rights advocates have promised to challenge Alabama’s ban long before November, when the law is to go into effect.
It likely will be decided at the U.S. Supreme Court—though a much different court than the one that decided Roe v. Wade, the landmark case in which justices ruled, 7–2, on Jan. 22, 1973 that unduly restrictive state regulation of abortion is unconstitutional.
With regard to the fetus, the court located that point at “capability of meaningful life outside the mother’s womb,” or viability.
Meanwhile, most of a growing field of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates have weighed in to condemn the anti-abortion legislation—including New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker.
For his part, President Donald Trump tweeted after the vote, “As most people know, and for those who would like to know, I am strongly Pro-Life, with the three exceptions —Rape, Incest and protecting the Life of the mother—the same position taken by Ronald Reagan.”
Many thousands of protesters mobilized in the region May 21, in Englewood at the Englewood Monument at 106 West Palisade Ave.; outside Closter Borough Hall; and in Maplewood, Somerville, and Matawan.
Nationally they are supported by the ACLU, Emily’s list, Indivisible, MoveOn, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, UltraViolet and Women’s March.
Their purpose: to mobilize their members and activists in all 50 states to host and attend actions outside of state capitals, in town squares, at courthouses, and elsewhere to raise awareness and seek change.
We spent time at two of the area’s protests May 21 in Englewood and Closter, where the political and the personal could not help but merge. Here are some of the men and women we heard and saw that day calling for change.
Englewood protester: ‘We Are Not Ovary-Reacting’
By noon in Englewood more than 150 protesters—men and women—had gathered at Soldier’s Monument on Palisade Avenue to oppose Alabama’s ban.
Many held hand-painted signs reading “My Body My Choice,” “We Are Not Ovary-Reacting,” “Stop the Ban,” and “If Men Got Pregnant, We’d Have Drive-thru Abortions.”
Former Englewood Mayor Sandra Greenberg’s sign read, “How Many Times Does This 90 Year Old Woman Have to Defend a Woman’s Right to Choose?”
Signs encouraging drivers to “Honk For Choice” were heard to produce a chorus of horns.
The Englewood protest was organized by Ann Sparanese and Laura Vogel, founders, in 2017, of Indivisible Englewood, and advocacy for women’s rights, including health care.
Many political and community leaders attended, including Bergen County Freeholder Tracy Zur, Englewood Council President Katharine Glynn, District 26 Assembly candidate Christine Clarke, Councilwoman Hedy Grant from New Milford, and Director of the Women’s Rights Information Center Lillian “Lil” Corcoran.
Representatives delivered messages of support from Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, Assemblyman Gordon M. Johnson and U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell.
Although the crowd was well behaved, there was no mistaking anger and frustration surrounding abortion rights.
Sparanese said at the event, “What we have here is the Democrats versus the Taliban. The Republicans are an extremist party and this ban is their goal. To stop this, it is all about the election in 2020.”
Earlier, Sparanese encouraged supporters to call their elected officials in Trenton and make their concerns heard.
Local resident Bonnie Chalek said at the protest, “Reproductive rights are a matter of personal freedom, economic freedom, personal choice and control over one’s body, and the government should not have anything to do with that.”
Zur said she remembers protesting on her college campus for women’s rights.
“I can’t believe that we are back here again! These bans in Alabama and elsewhere are a stand against women and their freedoms and their self-determination,” she said.
She added her 13-year-old daughter told her she had a nightmare—that she’d woken up and found that women had no rights.
Zur said that in addition to “just stand[ing] here with signs” there must be “financial support to those people who are waging the legal battles, and we need to get to the polls on Nov. 5, 2020, and make our stand. We need to be the grown-ups in the room!”
Grant added, “I can’t believe that we are going back in time! All these buttons that I am wearing today are from the time before Roe v. Wade was passed. I can’t believe that I need them again. Something needs to be done! Enough is enough!”
Han Broekman, one of the men who attended, came here from the Netherlands in 1969. He said he was protesting “because I believe in the autonomy of every person to decide what they want to do for themselves with themselves. A person’s health should be between that person and his or her doctor.”
Sandy Fein from Teaneck said she was protesting because it’s critical to support Roe v. Wade.
“My mother had to defend her reproductive rights and now I have to stand up for these rights for my daughter and for her daughter,” she said.
Clarke gave an impassioned speech, saying in part, “We cannot criminalize women’s bodies and we cannot make women secondary occupants of their bodies. In other countries, women lose their lives seeking abortions. We should not have to risk death to assert our reproductive rights!”
Following the speeches, Sparanese invited the sharing of personal stories, some deeply personal. The gathering concluded with the group chanting—and clearly eager to take the abortion issue to the ballot box next year.
Closter turns protest into dance party
In Closter, a passionate group of protesters gathered on the sidewalk outside of Borough Hall.
Homemade signs with sayings such as “Stop the War on Women’s Rights” and “Keep Your Filthy Laws Off My Silky Drawers” were waved at passing cars.
The crowd also shouted chants including “Not the church, not the state; women will decide our fate.”
The rally was organized by Michelle Golland, a clinical psychologist who has appeared on “Good Morning America,” “The Today Show,” and “The O’Reilly Factor.”
“Trump and the GOP are going to gut Roe if we don’t stop them, and it can be eliminated and that’s not happening on this Gen-X mom’s watch,” Golland said.
She added, “Really, there’s no choice anymore; we have to do it, and that’s it, so we’re here. We’re loud and we’re all the mamma bears that have woken up.”
As attendees held signs and chanted, music by female artists played in the background, and several in the crowd danced.
“It’s a serious issue, it’s an important issue, but it doesn’t have to be a serious event,” Golland said.
Lea Sherman, Socialist Workers Party candidate for state Assembly, held a sign reading, “Defend Abortion! A Woman’s Right to Choose. U.S. Hands Off Venezuela, Cuba, Iran.”
One protester, a woman from Englewood, said “I feel so strongly about this and I’m horrified by what is going on so as soon as I saw that there was this nationwide thing today I wanted to participate.”
— Reporting by Hillary Viders in Englewood, Kathryne McCann in Closter and staff writer John Snyder.