Fighting back tears, Leslie McFarlane made her stance clear.
“This was a racist decision, not just a sexist decision,” McFarlane said about the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 24 ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 abortion rights decision.
She was met with a wave of applause from more than 200 people, mostly women, who attended a town hall meeting about women’s health Thursday night in Brighton.
The forum, organized by Rep. Joe Morelle, included a panel of five experts and pro-choice advocates.
Emotions within the Monroe Community College conference room ran high. McFarlane said she was most concerned about women who have less access to resources.
“I do not believe this issue is about just abortion and about saving the life of the unborn,” she said. “I believe this is an issue about holding people back.”
McFarlane said she was referring to women of color and women living in poverty. Panelist Michelle Casey, expanded on McFarlane’s list to include the LGBTQ+ community.
“It's people who are ‘othered’ from all walks of life,” said Casey, the CEO of Planned Parenthood of Central and Western New York.
She added that making abortion illegal doesn’t make it less likely to happen, it just makes it less safe; she said an “underground network” would make these procedures accessible yet dangerous.
Attendee Barbara Boyce recalled having to use one of those “underground networks” as a teenager in the 1960s.
“I suffered another pregnancy before I got married, which ended with an abortion in a house in Buffalo,” Boyce said.
She said the issue of abortion extends beyond reproductive rights.
“We have to focus on women's rights, and our right of citizenship and due process,” Boyce said. “I am sick and tired of being a second-class citizen.”
