Demonstrations occurred Friday evening in Bucks County to oppose the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe V. Wade.
While abortion access in Pennsylvania remains available, the overturn puts its future on shaky ground as the state legislature and next governor will play a major role in whether it remains widely accessible and legal in the Keystone state.
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Outside of Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick’s office at One Summit Square at the corner of the Newtown Bypass and Langhorne-Newtown Road in Middletown Township, more than 150 demonstrators, mostly women, held signs expressing their dismay at the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, which was welcomed by many high-profile conservatives.
Signs displayed read “keep abortion legal,” “regulate your dick,” “my body, my choice,” and “if a uterus shot bullets you wouldn’t regulate it.”
“Brian Fitzpatrick is the foremost anti-choice lawmaker in Bucks County, thus it is natural to bring this issue to his doorstep,” said Kierstyn Zolfo, of Indivisible Bucks County, which hosted the rally. “There is no grievance more heinous than losing one’s right to bodily autonomy, and that is what we are facing in America today.”
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Ashley Ehasz, the Democratic candidate running against Fitzpatrick, was at the demonstration and spoke.
“While the people of his district are now faced with the real life ramifications of their constitutional right to a safe and legal abortion being ripped away, Fitzpatrick is in Washington, D.C., toasting his fellow politicians now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade. Fitzpatrick may think that he has won by setting us back over 50 years, but I guarantee that here in Pennsylvania’s First District, voters have a different plan. In 2022, Fitzpatrick will look back and regret that he ever voted against protecting a woman’s right to choose,” she said.
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Ann Marie Mitchell, the Democratic candidate running against Republican Frank Farry for state senate, also was the event. She said her great-grandmother terminated some of her pregnancies.
“Contraception was limited, and although she was Catholic, they couldn’t afford a larger family. We do not want to return to the days when people have to put their lives at great risk over a private and deeply personal healthcare choice,” she said.
Pro-choice advocates have called out Fitzpatrick’s 2021 vote against the Women’s Health Protection Act, which was created to lift restrictions on access to abortion. The bill passed in the U.S. House, but it failed in the U.S. Senate.
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Fitzpatrick was rated in 2022 to have an 80 percent approval rating on his positions by the National Right to Life Committee and 60 percent by the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
Following the top court’s decision, Fitzpatrick said in a statement that abortion was a “sensitive topic” and a “a woman’s privacy and autonomy” are important while also preserving the “sanctity of human life.”
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Fitzpatrick also said in the statement posted to his website that he has supported the framework for the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would, in most cases, ban abortion after a fetus reaches 20 weeks.
The rally outside of Fitzpatrick’s office wasn’t the only one in the county.
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In front of the Bucks County Administration Building in Doylestown Borough, a large group gathered at a demonstration against the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision. The event was organized by Planned Parenthood Keystone.
There was also a rally over the issue held in Sellersville Borough in Upper Bucks County.
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