VERMONT

Vermont anti-abortion advocates fight for restrictions, lawmakers push to protect access

Nicole Higgins DeSmet
Burlington Free Press

MONTPELIER - Several hundred anti-abortion advocates rallied at the state capital Saturday to fight and pray for restrictions. The action contrasts a move by Vermont lawmakers earlier in the week introducing a bill proposing that reproductive choice is made a fundamental right.

"They are trying to super-protect the right to an abortion," Executive Director of Vermont Right to Life Mary Beerworth said on Wednesday when asked about the proposed legislation.

Beerworth, of Fairfax, has been campaigning against abortion for over 25 years, but she and several hundred other Vermonters were ready to continue the fight at the annual march and rally in Montpelier.

Mary Beerworth, executive director of Vermont Right to Life, takes a moment on the steps of the Vermont State House, before joining anti-abortion marchers inside on Jan. 26, 2019.

Beerworth said her work this year is lobbying against Planned Parenthood backed interests. She said she was gathering strength to advocate against bills in both the state House and Senate that would remove all traces of independent rights for fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses. The House bill was signed by over 90 representatives.

Voices from the Rally for Life

The procession from St. Augustine's Church to the state Capitol was solemn on a bright 20 degree day. Families, including multi-generational ones, walked in the street holding signs garnering a few curious looks, as locals continued on their way to brunch spots. 

Matthew DeMatties, 17 of Vergennes volunteered to carry the rally banner with Brad Stankiewicz, 15, of Milton lead the anti-abortion march to state house rally in Montpelier on Jan. 26, 2019.

Everyone marching had their own story for being there. 

Debra Barnhart of Milton said she was motivated to get out of bed to come to her first march because New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law on Jan. 23 a Reproductive Health Act annulling rules preventing late-term abortions after 24 weeks. 

Ben and Nakysha Olsen of Morrisville, with three children and grandparents in tow, came for many reasons, but Nakysha summed it up.

"It's a vulnerable time," Olsen said. "We are here because we support women and that might look a bit different, but we are willing to put our money where our mouth is and take on someone else's child." 

The Olsen's said they were considering adding to their family through adoption.

Annisa Lamberson of Middle Springs carried an ultrasound image of her son, who died six hours after birth. 

Annisa Lamberson of Middle Springs carried an ultrasound image of her son, who died six hours after birth. 
"I'm here because of love not hate," Lamberson said on Jan. 26, 2019 at an anti-abortion rally.

"I'm here because of love not hate," Lamberson said, explaining that carrying him to term and losing him was painful, but she was grateful to have been able to love him, meet him and mourn him.

Covington doesn't represent all Catholics

Kayla Poginy, 21, a Barton-based Catholic Church youth leader, missed the Montpelier rally due to a work commitment but had gone to Washington, D.C., as a chaperone for the national march the previous week.

Poginy said it was moving to be among hundreds of thousands of people who came together in faith to pray to end abortion, especially coming from a state often ranked least religious in the country.

Anti-abortion demonstrators march past the Supreme Court in Washington on Thursday during the annual March for Life. Thousands of anti-abortion demonstrators are gathering in Washington for an annual march to protest the Supreme Court's landmark 1973 decision that declared a constitutional right to abortion.

More:UVM Medical Center reverses policy; will provide elective abortions

Poginy said she witnessed only acts of faith in Washington. She believed the confrontation, sensationalized in a viral video that shows part of a encounter in which students from Kentucky's Covington Catholic High School appeared to mock a Native American man as he drummed and sang, drew negative attention to an otherwise peaceful gathering.

More:Covington Catholic: Rally held at diocese as incident seen as 'opportunity for growth'

"Pro-life is part of the catholic faith," Poginy said, explaining that according to church teachings, life begins at conception. "It's a combination of DNA that will never be repeated. Their dependency in the first trimester doesn't make them less human."

Poginy said she was not interested in partisan politics, but she was moved to vote based on the abortion stance of the candidate.

Vermont abortion access by law

Thirty-seven states, require parents to be involved if a teenager under 17 decides to have an abortion, according to the Guttermacher Institute, a reproductive rights advocacy group. 

Patty Lawson of Fairfax rolls her child down Main Street in Montpelier as part of an anti-abortion march and rally in the capital on Jan. 26, 2019.

Beerworth said parental involvement was the number one issue for her group.

Other states also have a waiting periods, medical justifications or limitations on public funds for abortions.

Vermont accounts for 0.2 percent of all abortions in the U.S., according to a 2017 Guttermacher report

U.S. abortion law

Abortion has been legal in the U.S. since the Supreme Court decided 46 years ago on Jan. 23 in favor of Jane Roe in Roe v. Wade, but many states have found legal pathways to limit access.

More:Abortion cases are heading toward the Supreme Court. Can the justices avoid them for long?

Some activists believe the tide is turning with new faces on the highest court. Meanwhile, Beerworth is hoping to catch the ear of state Legislators who she believes are "upset about late term abortions." 

More:Abortion becomes issue in race for governor

Rep. Vicki Strong, R- Orleans-Caledonia, was introduced as a supporter of Right to Life Vermont and also a gold star mom, on Jan. 26, 2019 at the Vermont State House.

Representatives Mary A. Morrissey, R-Bennington, Vicki Strong, R-Orleans-Caledonia and others were present in the House Chambers as Bishop of the Diocese of Burlington Christopher Coyne convened the gathering with a prayer for "all life."

"The Vermont bills have got us pretty steamed up," Beerworth said Saturday as marchers filed into the statehouse. 

Contact Nicole Higgins DeSmet at ndesmet@freepressmedia.com or 802-660-1845. Follow her on Twitter @NicoleHDeSmet.