The Generational Fight

by Cooper Bass and Maddie Goodwin

There is hope for a feminist future after a patriarchal past.

With the overturning of Roe v.Wade, women’s rights advocates from all ages are coming together to make their voices heard.

The decision set off a shockwave of emotions. From all corners of the country, both young and old protestors decided they didn’t want to go back to feeling unsafe in this nation. Some were scared of what might happen to them, while others were angry that a male-dominated panel of judges made a decision that would affect hundreds of millions of women.

“You feel like there’s nothing you can do. But there is, we can make our voices heard. And so that’s what drove me. It was like, I can’t just go to the beach and pretend like nothing happened,” Monica Johnson said, a 52-yearold feminist, who cut short her vacation after learning Roe v Wade got overturned. While in the car driving to the beach in Naples, Florida, Johnson said she heard the news that the federal protection of abortion was over. She admitted it was the most depressing vacation she had ever been on.

“My poor husband was just like, ‘What can I do?’ He just kept saying it over and over again. Which I was grateful for because he didn’t try to act like it was no big deal,” Johnson said.“You can turn around, and we’re gonna go make some effing signs. We’re gonna go to Walgreens and get some markers and poster boards and we’re gonna find a protest. I was not being nice about it. I was screaming. I was so angry. I swear I’ve never felt that angry before in my life because someone literally just took a right from you. A human right.” In Kentucky, abortion is banned, except in cases of life endangerment. A patient must receive state-directed counseling that includes information designed to discourage the patient from having an abortion, and then wait 24 hours before procedure is provided.

On June 4, 2022, the Supreme Court ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark court trial that protected a woman’s right to have an abortion. With this decision, it has given each individual state the power to decide whether or not to outlaw abortions. As of Aug. 1, 2022, Kentucky’s legislation has made nearly all abortion cases illegal throughout the state. Kendall McGarry, a 17-year-old senior at Bullitt High School who advocates for women’s rights, expressed outrage at the Court’s reversal. “It just feels like we’re going backwards and there’s nothing I can do,” she said. “I still have hope that things can change, but right now, it makes me upset seeing the treatment of women.” Being raised in a house of mostly girls, turn should protect a women’s right to have an abortion. Acknowledging that the rights of pregnant people may conflict with the rights of the state to protect potential human life, the Court defined the rights of each party by dividing pregnancy into three 12-week trimesters. After the first trimester, a woman can only have an abortion for health reasons.

McGarry said she grew up with the mindset that women are just as capable and deserving as men. It’s led her to be very passionate about women’s rights issues and her advocacy of abortion rights.“I know that there are people out there who have been fighting this fight for years and that this new generation [it] probably excites them,” she said. “I just hope that we can actually make a change for the better.”

At the center of the Jan. 22, 1973 decision that legalized abortion and shifted the balance of power of a woman’s body, was an unmarried pregnant woman named Jane Roe. Roe filed a lawsuit on behalf of herself and others to challenge Texas abortion laws. Roe believed banning abortions was against the Fourteenth Amendment, “right to privacy”, which in

That 1973 Supreme Court ruling passed 7-2 with an estimated 50,000 Americans protesting.“So even though the Supreme Court, in theory,has the last say, they absolutely do not,” Johnson said. “We have a Constitution that guarantees certain rights, and we fought very hard as women to gain the same rights as men and we still don’t have all the same rights, especially now.”Johnson stressed that women in the U.S. still lack equal pay, equal benefits and equal promotions compared to their male counterparts. “We have fought and fought and fought forever,” Johnson said. “And to have this taken away, after 50 years of it being a right to choose what we do with our bodies, it’s literally an assault on women.” Women of all ages are not standing by while they feel their rights are getting taken away. Johnson said at a protest she attended in Kentucky, even grandmothers came out to show their support. She briefly spoke to two elderly baptist women at the protest in Louisville. They said they were pro-life but wanted to protect the womens right to choose and to protect any childs right to an abortion in cases of rape.

Abby Hall, an 18-year-old college freshman at Eastern Kentucky University, attended an abortion protest in Jeffersonville, Ind., which was organized by two teenage advocates. “The age demographic is something that really surprised me,” Hall said. “There were kids as young as two and then some who were there when Roe vs Wade was originally put into effect and are back protesting for it again.”