NEWS: GREATER ITHACA COMMUNITY
M E M B E R S O F T H E I THACA COMMUNITY RALLY TOGETHER AT CO R N E L L T O A D VOCATE FOR REPRODUCTIVE R I G HTS together and listen to some speakers who share about making abortions accessible for people of color, similar passions and who have had experience transgender people and working-class people. “Rich people, including the wives and the daughhants of “Not the courts, not the states, with fighting laws for decades now,” Ganbarg said ters of these reactionary lawmakers, have always and women must decide our fate,” filled Cornell via email. Zillah Eisenstein, professor emerita in the Depart- will always have access to abortion,” Dickinson said. University’s Ho Plaza on Oct. 2 as people from Cornell, Ithaca College and the greater Ithaca area ral- ment of Politics, was one of the speakers at the rally “They’ll always have access to basic health care. It and talked about the importance of not only keeping is working-class and poor people who will bear the lied for reproductive rights. brunt of this and all the reactionary laws that are to The rally was incited by abortion restrictions en- abortions legal but also making them accessible. “It is really important to understand that the legal come and are coming if we do not stand together and acted by the state of Texas on Sept. 1. Senate Bill 8 bans people from getting abortions at six weeks of right to choose an abortion is very different than being fight back.” Cornell juniors Mel Miller and Maisie McDonald pregnancy and does not include exemptions for preg- able to access and get one,” Eisenstein said. Depending on factors like insurance coverage, the and sophomore Presley Church worked with PPGA at nancies resulting from rape, incest, sexual abuse and fetal anomalies, according to Planned Parenthood abortion method and how far along the pregnancy Cornell and PPGA at Ithaca College to help organize of Greater Texas. Most people learn that they are is, an abortion can cost anywhere between $0 and the event. “We had so many great speakers, and I think now pregnant between the fourth and seventh weeks of $1,500, according to Planned Parenthood. Eisenstein discussed social factors that can make it difficult we also have action items that we can continue to pregnancy, according to the American Pregnancy share,” Church said. or dangerous to access abortions. Association. Senate Bill 8 is known as the Ganbarg said she thought the rally was suc“You need not look elsewhere “Texas Heartbeat Act” because the bill to other countries to see wom- cessful in helping people work together to protect bans abortion when a “heartbeat” “You need not en disrespected, undervalued reproductive rights. is first detected in an embryo. “I’m really glad the City of Ithaca, New York, was and also feared,” Eisenstein However, this is a misleading look ... to other said. “We have our very own able to participate in this nationwide movement and title because cardiac activity is countries to Taliban right here. They provide a space for those who needed to release frusonly detected in the fetal pole, are homegrown American tration and come together,” Ganbarg said. a 4-millimeter-wide thicksee women At the rally, people were encouraged to sign a white men.” ening next to the yolk sac at disrespected.” Cornell University se- Planned Parenthood petition supporting abortion six weeks. nior Shamyra Coleman said rights, write letters to their elected officials and donate Abortion rights are histor-Zillah Eisenstein this rally and Senate Bill 8 are to a Texas abortion fund. ically controversial in the United Dickinson noted the importance of grassroots acvery personal to her because she is States. The Supreme Court heard a case tivism efforts like these. from Texas. Dec. 1 that has the potential to overturn Roe “History books would like to tell us that it was the “I had an abortion myself, so those rights would v. Wade, which granted people the right to have an Supreme Court … that granted us access to aborabortion before the fetus is viable to survive outside have been taken away from me,” Coleman said. Hannah Dickinson, associate professor in the tion,” Dickinson said. “No, it was groups like this. the uterus. This case led to the decision that states cannot restrict abortions during the first trimester, Department of Writing and Rhetoric at Hobart People who said ‘No, we are standing up for ourselves, that it can be regulated but not banned and, in the and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York, and for our sisters, for our mothers, for our trans siblings third trimester, states can restrict abortions un- organizer with the Geneva Women’s Assembly, spoke and saying “enough is enough.’” less it is necessary for the parent’s health. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization will determine whether it is unconstitutional for states to ban pre-viability abortions. Planned Parenthood Generation Action (PPGA) at Cornell and PPGA at Ithaca College organized the rally as a part of a national movement against the Texas Senate Bill 8. Over 150 rallies and marches were held Oct. 2 as a part of the Women’s March Network. Approximately 60 people attended the Cornell rally, which included speakers like New York state assembly member Anna Kelles, professors from Cornell and Ithaca College, members of the Ithaca Common Council and Cornell student-leaders, among others. Julia Ganbarg, Ithaca College senior and president of PPGA at Ithaca College, said the goal of the rally was to provide a place for people to share frustrations and show support for reproductive rights. “The rally was a place for people who had anger but didn’t know how to channel it, to come Zillah Eisenstein, professor emerita in the Department of Politics at Ithaca College, speaks at the rally Oct. 2. Ana Maniaci McGough/The Ithacan
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BY ALYSHIA KORBA
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