‘Women’s rights are in danger’: Hundreds gather for women’s march in Kansas City
Hundreds of people chanted about women’s reproductive rights as they marched Saturday to Kansas City’s River Market.
Protesters convened at 16th and Main streets, carrying signs that read “It’s called uterUS — the choice belongs to us,” and “My favorite season is the fall of the patriarchy.”
Rev. Kelly Isola, one of the event organizers, said she was telling her story publicly for the first time. Thirty-two years ago, Isola was closing down the bar she worked at when she was attacked by three men. They beat and raped her.
When she discovered she was pregnant, she had an abortion. Though abortion was legal, she said she faced several hoops in accessing the care she needed and was also shamed.
“I don’t see that it’s a whole lot different 32 years later,” Isola said.
Participating in the march was about having a voice, she said.
“It’s not about being enraged, it’s about being outraged and using that energy to shift and change policy, to bring attention to our voices, that we count.”
As marchers headed north into the Power & Light District, Kyla Coleman said she feared losing her rights. She wore a red “Handmaid’s Tale” dress, describing the Margaret Atwood novel that has been made into a show on Hulu, as a cautionary tale.
“I feel like women’s rights are in danger and we have to fight for it,” Coleman said.
Krissy and Steven Herzig brought their four-year-old son Henry to the march “to teach him to be a feminist and to stand up for other people,” Krissy Herzig said.
Deborah Topp said she was at the protest for her two daughters.
“They deserve rights that I didn’t have growing up,” Topp said, adding that she was afraid a restrictive abortion law in Texas would spread to other states.
The law, which went into effect last month, bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
Last week, a federal appeals court heard oral arguments on whether to allow a Missouri law restricting abortions at eight weeks to go into effect.
Voters in Kansas will decide whether to retain a state constitutional guarantee to the right to an abortion next August.
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to revisit the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision next year in a Mississippi case banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
This story was originally published October 2, 2021 at 1:14 PM.
