During a rally Tuesday in New York’s Union Square, actress Cynthia Nixon held up a wire hanger while she told a crowd about the illegal abortion her mother had in the 1960s.
“Abortion rights and reproductive rights is a very personal issue for me,” Nixon said.
“My mother had an abortion here in New York State before it was legal. And when I was old enough, she made sure to tell me about it.”
Nixon, who is currently campaigning to be the next governor of New York, added that although it was a terrible experience for her mother, she wanted her daughter to know about it.
“It was very hard for her to speak about it. She didn’t give a lot of details but it was very important for her to tell me that she had had an abortion, that it had been illegal, and that it had been a tremendously awful experience. She wanted me to make sure that I knew her history so I can fully value how crucial reproductive freedom is.”
Nixon held up a wire hanger and told the crowd of listeners that it was a tool used by desperate women in the past to end their unwanted pregnancies.
“For those of you too young to remember, this is something that women in this state and this country were driven to use out of fear and desperation, performing abortions on themselves often with devastating effects to their health and sometimes their life.”
Nixon tweeted Tuesday that society must avoid a return to such practices.
“We must never go back to a time when any woman feels that she has to make this kind of a choice.”
During her speech, Nixon said listeners need to “fight like hell in New York and across the country to preserve Roe vs. Wade so that no woman will ever feel compelled to use something like this on herself again.”
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In reaction to President Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court of the United States, former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards said Tuesday that we could be going back to a “very scary” time for women in America.
“Roe v. Wade did not create the idea of abortion. Abortion existed before it was legal, it simply was unsafe. And young, healthy women died routinely in emergency rooms across the country,” Richards said.
“We’re going to go back to a day in which women had to go across the border or take matters into their own hands. It’s a very scary time for women.”
However, critics say fears that abortion will once again become illegal are mostly unfounded.
“Should Roe be overturned, the question of abortion, and any limits on abortions, would return to the states and in most cases the legislative branch,” wrote Margot Cleveland.
“In some states abortion would still be on-demand and paid for by the government. Other states will likely adopt restrictions overwhelmingly supported by the populace, such as a ban on late-term abortions or sex-selection abortions.”
“Yet, expect abortion activists to repeat the lie that Kavanaugh will criminalize abortion. And expect the mainstream media to keep quiet about this fraud,” she concluded.
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