Local activists take to the streets to sound the alarm on abortion bans across the nation
SALISBURY, Md. – In a post Roe v. Wade world, 14 states have moved to ban abortion, since June 2022.
On the Eastern Shore, community members took to the streets to ensure Maryland remains untouched.
“It is a women’s issue, it’s also a men’s issue and a children’s issue. It’s an issue for all of us,” said community member, Susan Buyer.
Women from all walks of life hit the busy corner of West College Ave and South Salisbury Blvd to sound the alarm against the abortion ban, ahead of the 2024 election.
It’s a protest that June McKenna never thought she’d have to partake in, twice in her life.
“In the 60s, I was a nursing student, and I was on the line, marching and demonstrating, in Philadelphia and D.C., for women’s rights,” McKenna said. “Rights for birth control, rights for abortion, so women don’t die. I never thought that 50 years later I’d be out here again.”
But how did we get here?
Buyer said voting, or the lack thereof, is how the right to an abortion slipped away from women.
She called on the younger generation to exercise their right to vote.
“It really does matter who people vote for in November,” Buyer said. “This is a young community, here, with the university, and so frankly, in some ways, it’s at least as critical to the younger people as it is to the women of my age.”
The only male representative at the protest, Toby Perkins believes women shouldn’t be the only ones fighting for this cause, because it takes two to bring life into this world.
“I don’t think it’s an issue that’s exclusively a women’s issue; it’s a men’s issue as well,” Perkins said. “After all, if a woman has an unwanted pregnancy, the man is half of the problem, originally.”
As the count down to the next election continues, Perkins urges everyone to act on their civic duty and vote, to not only protect the women of today, but the girls of the future as well.
“Abortion is health care and everybody needs good health care. We can afford it in this country, and we ought to provide it to people who need it,” Perkins said.
