Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at Foley Square in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday evening to protest the possibility of the Supreme Court’s overturning Roe v. Wade, which has guaranteed the right to abortion for nearly half a century. https://t.co/ACFdFI2Vyd pic.twitter.com/O6R1f7E66L

— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 4, 2022

I have a new hero.

I don’t know her name yet.

It is an assumption on my part that my new hero is female. When this person is outed, and I’m sure that will happen eventually, the world will know who saved Roe v. Wade.

All of us who have been watching knew this was coming.

I woke up this morning with a memory from the 90s. I am strolling purposefully down the center of a busy Houston, Texas street. I’m dressed in pink faux leather heels and a white suit with pastel flowers, some of them pink, portraying a more cheery scene than the one I was currently cast in. There was an abortion clinic located on this street and on each side of that street, there were wooden horses holding protesters apart. The left side contained the pro-abortion camp, and the right side held back the pro-lifers.

I had left my cushy corner office with floor-to-ceiling windows displaying a bluebird sky dotted with the entire Houston downtown skyline. I’d learned my high-school-aged daughter was in the middle of the fray, and instinctively I rushed to protect her and to show my support for the cause. I located her where she was holding her position on the right-to-choose side of the street, standing behind a Catholic priest. Someone from the pro-life side escaped the barriers and charged at the priest, knocking him to the cement. We made the evening news.

This morning’s news about the leaked Supreme Court draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade still has me reeling. My now-grown daughter has tried to reassure me over our morning coffee that this leak is a good thing. I hope she is right.

The rallying cry has definitely gone out and I have retrieved my dusty, worn protest shoes (not the faux pink heels—those went to the thrift store years ago) from the closet, and I am ready to do my part again.

It seems our basic rights to make our own decisions regarding our lives, our bodies, and our minds are never guaranteed. We must remain on constant vigil to uphold these rights because apparently, there are still men out there who crave the power to control just for the sake of control itself. No one really believes these people care about human lives. 

This leaked draft offered up to us by my new hero will do its job. It will mobilize us, the ones who still believe in freedom and democracy.

Start calling your representatives, emailing anyone who will listen, sign petitions, join phone banks, donate to organizations that can assist in getting our voices heard, and dust off your protest shoes because, ladies and gentlemen allies, we will be taking to the streets.

Again.

~