By Rachel Royster | News Editor
Baylor students joined members of the Waco community Saturday at the nationwide Women’s March. This year, the march focused on women’s reproductive rights after recent Texas abortion laws were passed, banning abortions as early as six weeks or when a heartbeat is detected.
The rally brought together about 400 people at Indian Spring Park. One organizer and speaker, Lilu Dyan, said people need to be reminded that “there’s always a story” to go along with each need for abortion to remind them why this is such a pressing issue.
Dyan was one of the women to share her personal experience with abortion and “why it is so important to have access to safe, legal abortion after six weeks.”
“It’s really the people at Planned Parenthood that saved me because I got counseling afterwards for my rape,” Dyan said. “And for the actual having an abortion — it’s not what everyone thinks it is. You don’t go in there and be like, ‘Hi, I want to have an abortion today.’ It’s hours and hours of counseling before you even move to that next step. And it changed my whole life.”
Josette Ayers, the board vice chair for Planned Parenthood of Texas, also spoke at the rally, saying the ban “is even worse than [she] expected.”
“Bans don’t end the need for abortion,” Ayers said. “They only start to complicate and put undue burden on women seeking to exercise their constitutional rights to basic healthcare. This extreme abortion ban creates devastating barriers for patients and puts their health at risk.”
Karen Martinez, one Waco community member who attended the march, said she wants to see women be allowed to have a choice, “just like men have their choice with their bodies.”
Martinez attended the march with her young daughter and said she hopes that when her daughter grows up, she might have the rights women currently don’t have.
“So 20 years from now, when she’s of reproductive age, and she’s ready to have kids, she doesn’t have to worry about her options,” Martinez said. “You know, all she’ll have to worry about is what she wants to do — because that’s what she wants, not what she’s limited to.”
Allen freshman Rylee Arnold said she came to support her fellow sister in turmoil.
“It’s really refreshing to know that there’s people who are standing with us,” Arnold said. “But overall, I just hope that people will see that we’re out here, and we’re protesting the heartbeat bill. Most women don’t even know they’re pregnant until six weeks. So the fact that they can’t get an abortion after six weeks is kind of ridiculous. And we’re just hopeful that people will see that they’re not alone, and that this cause is a cause worth fighting for.”
Supporters of the heartbeat bill also attended the march — but in protest of it. Ronnie Holmes, senior pastor of the Church of the Open Door, led a group of about a dozen people with signs in passing out flyers against abortion.
“We’re reaching out to the supporters who in some way have been convinced that taking the life of a baby in the womb is a good thing,” Holmes said. “I think sometimes people do this, and they just don’t understand the science and the morality. And so we’re here reaching out through the love of Jesus Christ to get accurate information to girls. That’s the goal.”
When met with the opposition, Marva Sadler, a speaker at the march, said “they’re only here to deter you.”
“These people that are walking around with these signs will make you think and believe that it’s about safety and it’s about healthcare; it’s a witch hunt,” Sadler said. “They don’t respect you. They don’t think you have the facilities to make the decisions for your own body, and with us, it is clear, it’s not about your safety. It’s not about the lives of the unborn children.”
Reverend Milo Grant, another speaker at the rally, told the Women’s March attendees not to let them silence their voices.
“[To the opposition,] I have to say I hope that you continue to learn and educate yourself,” Grant said. “This is not just about trying to be right or wrong. This is about making sure that lives are protected.”
McLennan Community College student Troy Fisher said he wants to see a compromise made in order to protect more people.
“We can meet in the middle somewhere,” Fisher said. “Yeah, I’d like to see less abortions too. But I’d also like to see more sex education and other programs in place that kind of help people instead of disenfranchising. And it seems like as soon as the baby’s born, they lose interest until they’re 18 and can join the military and they carry guns.”
San Jose, Calif., sophomore Lakshmi Ramesh said she wants the march to be seen by Baylor as a wake-up call to step up.
“Waco is full of minorities and people of the LGBT community, and Baylor is probably the most influential institution that’s probably the center of Waco,” Ramesh said. “It’d be great if Baylor would use its voice to stand up for the rights of minorities and people who don’t have a voice.”
Dyan said Baylor has the chance to use its platform and continue to progress as a university.
“With everything that Baylor has faced legally with rape allegations, Jacob Anderson, they need to have a voice where they say, ‘We will protect our female students; we will protect our LGBT students,’” Dyan said. “They don’t have to acknowledge their lifestyle, but they acknowledge them as a human being and what they are and they go to Baylor University. It’s not about judgment. It’s about the person, and it’s about protecting them. You don’t have to agree with lifestyles. You don’t have to say anything. Just protect them.”
