Hundreds of pro-choice demonstrators lined 196th Street Southwest in Lynnwood Saturday afternoon to show support for women’s reproductive rights and protest recent legislative efforts to restrict access to abortion.
The 2021 Women’s March event Oct. 2 was one of more than 650 similar protests across the country. The demonstrations were primarily sparked by recent legislation in Texas banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy as well as the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to not rule the Texas measure unconstitutional.
On Saturday, demonstrators solicited honks from passing vehicles as they lined 64th Avenue West wearing pink and waving signs that said “My body, my choice” and “Abortion access for all!”
The event was hosted by the Salish Sea Chapter of the Washington State Federation of Democratic Women.
“We need to have autonomy for our own bodies,” said Chapter President Cathy Baylor of Lynnwood.
Baylor said the organization was also calling for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, which would guarantee equal rights for women; protesting Next Step Pregnancy Services, a crisis pregnancy center in Lynnwood that she says attempts to dissuade women from seeking an abortion; and showing support for Planned Parenthood.
“(Planned Parenthood has) been doing a wonderful thing for us in our community,” Baylor said. “Every week, there are people who stand out and protest (the work of Planned Parenthood).”
Nearby, a couple of pro-life demonstrators held signs at the intersection of 196th Street and 68th Avenue. John Bywater, a Snohomish County resident, said he and others came out to counterprotest the Women’s March because they “love babies and hate abortion.”
Bywater said he and his friends regularly come to Lynnwood to protest abortion and instead offer resources like prayer counseling or baby supplies.
–Story and photos by Cody Sexton
Thank you for covering this event. It gives us an opportunity to ask questions about Planned Parenthood and talk about the “work” it provides our community. Regarding a women’s right to choose, Planned Parenthood only supports women who choose to abort their babies. It does not support the right to choose life, only death.
This is the “work” that pro-life supporters object to when they stand on the sidewalk – the “work” regarding aborting children. Planned Parenthood is not in the business of offering help to women and their families who want to continue their pregnancies and give birth to their children. It does not offer grief counseling to a woman who regrets her choice of aborting her baby. Thankfully there are other choices in our community for women who find themselves in an unplanned pregnancy and want to choose life. Next Step Pregnancy center is one of those choices. Thank you for shining the light on Next Step.
I so appreciate the women who stood on October 2, here and across the country. Thank you for amplifying the issue! It is about our right to privacy. It is about making fully informed choices. It is about the constitutional right to bodily autonomy for all not just men, and access to the healthcare women need whether prenatal care or abortion if that is what they choose.
But … to coerce women into pregnancy is wrong. To say life begins at 6 weeks is wrong. To say you will punish the rapist after centuries of opportunity to do so is a lie. To make false promises of support or uninformed statements about any side affects of abortion is deceptive and self-serving. Choose pregnancy or do not – that right belongs to the person who is pregnant. No one else. How about certifying the Equal Rights Amendment, a comprehensive Violence Against Women Act, bringing justice to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, or making the child tax credit permanent?
How about ensuring that terminating a pregnancy is safe? Keep it legal.
Thank you for sharing your clear understanding of these issues.
Why women should stand for other women: By your or my God’s great design we were born female. By that design, females
Bleed for give or take 40 years every 28 days oftentimes accompanied by
Headaches, cramping, bloating, acne, and mood swings. Now mind you even tho it’s 2021 many men can’t say menstruation, let alone spell it and don’t want to hear about it. If, when their female partner is in need of a hysterectomy, or some other surgery related to her vagina, many males will say…. “Awww I’m not sure what’s she’s having but some sorta female operation”. Yes in 2021.
Péri ménopause sets in followed by menopause which can result in loss of bone density, osteoporosis. Hot flashes, dry everything lasting various lengths in time cause all bodies are different.
Females have more parts prone to cancer, cervical, and ovarian two parts males don’t know much about.
By the Grace of your and my God our bodies can give birth to another human. Our society demands females be accountable for caring, feeding, clothing, educating that human making darned sure they’re a valued contributor to society.
It’s easy to carry signs for the unborn. Talk to me about all the lives in Foster care in this country and children in other nations dying every day.
Sign me:
Done with bleeding but never pleading for my fellow women.
According to the “Medical Services Data,” in Planned Parenthood’s latest Annual Report (for 2019 and 2020):
52% of their “work” has been to test for and treat Sexually Transmitted Infections
25% has been to provide contraception
6% has been to provide cancer screening and prevention
14% has been to provide other medical services for women
3% has been to provide abortion services.
THOSE are the facts.
Source: https://www.plannedparenthood.org/uploads/filer_public/67/30/67305ea1-8da2-4cee-9191-19228c1d6f70/210219-annual-report-2019-2020-web-final.pdf
It seems that, once again, there is division on this issue. I will say (I said this on a thread on the NextDoor app more than a year ago — I deleted my acct months ago, so I don’t know current status of that thread, which started as a business post by Next Step to solicit items.
I will say again that sex education in our schools and in our society at large need to improve. And that Planned Parenthood services are much-needed (ALL of them, not just three percent which is abortion). Abortions should be safe for ALL, if chosen.
I recently learned that Gold Park which is near Sprouts Market, is named after a couple. Between the 60’s and 80’s there was a clinic on that lot, in which Barbara was a childbirth educator and much more, and Morris was a physician. In 1962, one of the births was filmed and used as a tool to educate high school students. In this clinic, both births and abortion services were provided, when those choices were made by their patients. I appreciate this bit of history, but I know that others will not.
All three of Teresa Wippel’s publications Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace, and Edmonds covered the community event; I am not sure about Lynnwood Times or Edmonds Beacon.