CLEVELAND, Ohio-Cleveland Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell, state Rep Juanita Brent of Cleveland and longtime grassroots activist Lee Thompson (all three pictured with state Rep Brent at far left) will keynote the emergency mobilization rally called by Women's March Cleveland as part of a national action under the umbrella of the national Women's March for Saturday April 15 in response to a Texas court decision that outlawed the abortion pill The rally is also a rally against Walgreens.
Cleveland's sister rally is from noon-2 pm at 10001 Chester Avenue on Cleveland's east side near Walgreens, which is under fire for refusing to sell the abortion pill in Ohio and some 19 other states where GOP officials have threatened litigation. (For more information contact Women's March Cleveland at (216) 659-0473) The national women's march will also rally in Washington, D.C., the nation's capital
"It is a shame what Walgreen's is doing to women and I will be there to speak," said seasoned Councilman Kevin Conwell as Walgreens sits in his ward in the heart of the Black community at East 101st and Chester Avenue in Cleveland where the rally will be held. State Rep. Juanita Brent, a fighter for women's march who will be speaking at the event on public policy and women's rights, added that women in Ohio must stay diligent and focused on public policy and should attend public policy committee meetings in Columbus at the statehouse
"Greyhound cost $33 round trip to come to Columbus and maybe some people coming could pay for others who cannot afford to pay," said Brent, the only Black female state legislator in Cuyahoga County, a Democratic stronghold that includes the largely Black major American city of Cleveland and is Ohio's second largest county behind Franklin County, which includes the capital city of Columbus
Women's March Cleveland head organizer Kathy Wray Coleman said that if abortion is outlawed in Ohio that it will have a "disproportionate impact on Black women, Hispanic women, other women of color, and poor women."
Community activists are rallying, they say, for reproductive rights and against a decision last week by an Amarillo,Texas judge that outlawed the Food and Drug Administrations's longstanding abortion pill, which is officially dubbed mifepristone. While a Washington State federal judge subsequently issued a counter ruling in support of the abortion pill, women's rights advocates are taking to the streets this weekend to fight for reproductive and Civil Rights for women and to try to stem the tide of attacks on women's reproductive rights.
More specifically on the Texas ruling, Trump-appointed federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk has withdrawn the FDA's approval for mifepristone, one of the pills used in the medication abortion regimen. This medication has been used safely and very effectively for decades.
The two countering abortion pill rulings come on the heels last summer of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v Wade and relegate the authority to either restrict or outright outlaw abortion to the country's respective state legislatures, most of them Republican- dominated general assemblies.
Activists women, particularly of greater Cleveland, and Cleveland, a largely Black major American city, say that fascist judges like Kacsmaryk should keep their hands off abortion medication mIifepriston and other FDA approved reproductive medications. To date more than 14 states have criminalized abortion, including Ohio. Per its state legislature it has a six-week abortion ban that is on hold after a court ruling that is being challenged by state attorney general Dave Yost, a Republican.
Women's March Cleveland organizers say that absent major public outcry such a decision in Texas would likely be upheld by the same conservative-leaning Supreme Court that overturned Roe v Wade and that given that medication abortions make up more than half of all abortions in the country such a ban would be catastrophic. To the contrary, pro-life supporters say their cause is viable too. Nonetheless, it is clear that the fight for abortion access in America is ongoing, and contentious at best.
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