LEWISBURG (WVDN) – On Tuesday evening, Aug. 23, over 100 Greenbrier County citizens gathered in the city Green Space for an abortion rally benefitting the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia in Charleston, West Virginia’s only abortion provider.
Speakers at the rally included local, Democratic candidates who support legal abortion in West Virginia including Heather Hill, who is running for house of delegates in the 47th District of Greenbrier County against incumbent, Republican Todd Longanacre.
Hill is a clinical therapist and a licensed social worker who worked for the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia for 12 years.
Hill shared her experiences as an abortion counselor in Charleston, recalling an 11-year-old girl who came to the healthcare center for an abortion.
“I think about that 11-year-old girl who was raped by the 37-year-old who came into my office. And when I held her hand walking down the hall to go into the O.R., and that state trooper, his hands shaking as he’s waiting to get the DNA evidence.
“And then I accompanied her to recovery room to get a Pepsi and pretzels. Her whole dream was to come to the city of Charleston, but not that way,” remembered Hill, who was visibly emotional as she described other abortion patients she counseled at the Women’s Health Center including an abused woman who pretended to be dead to escape being killed by her partner and a woman who discovered she had breast cancer while pregnant.
Paul Detch, who is running for House of Delegates in the 46th District of Greenbrier County against incumbent, Republican Mike Honaker, also shared his own, personal story.
“My story starts with my second child, Carol Patricia Detch, who was born with Tay-Sachs disease,” said Detch.
“If any of you know anything about Tay-Sachs disease, the child develops normally for the first year; then the child stops progressing, can’t sit up, never does walk.
“So, you go to see your doctor and they look at you with some alarm. Eventually, you end up in a chair in the office of a geneticist. There, he tells you that your child has an inborn error of metabolism, which is the scientific way of telling you that your child is going to die, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
“He then goes and tells you the mechanics of it. That each cell in your body needs to get rid of the poisons that it develops. To do that, it has to have a particular enzyme that your child does not have, nor can get. This disease attacks first the most sensitive of those cells, the eye, the central nervous system. And so, the child initially goes blind and then becomes paralyzed, continues to become paralyzed to the point that it cannot swallow, cannot even digest food. Eventually, the child cannot cough or even breathe, and the child dies by drowning in its own bodily fluids,” Detch said, describing his own child’s fate in the second person.
“I mentioned this to you in detail,” Detch said, “only because my opponent, David Michael Honaker, and Todd Longanacre want to bring more children into this world who can suffer this same fate. And they want to take and claim for high moral ground.”
Detch explained that genetic testing during pregnancy can identify the markers for Tay-Sachs disease, and when abortion is legal, a family can choose to abort the fetus, sparing a child, he said, from the devastatingly painful deformities that would develop if the pregnancy was continued.
In last month’s special session, both Longanacre and Honaker supported complete abortion bans with “no exceptions.”
The bill introduced last month did not pass, and abortion is still legal in West Virginia, for now.
Women’s Health Center of West Virginia communications director and lobbyist Kaylen Barker emphasized that point.
“Abortion is still legal here,” Barker said. “We have to make sure as many people know as possible, because it’s been so confusing. We’re open, we’re still providing abortion care, and not just that, but a myriad of other reproductive health care.”
The keynote speaker of the evening was Delegate Danielle Walker, D-Monongalia. Walker is the vice chair of the West Virginia State Executive Committee and the only Black woman in the state legislature.
As she approached the microphone to speak, Walker began the call and response chant of “My body, my choice,” rallying the crowd.
“Come on Lewisburg, we’re going to make sure that Governor Justice hears us,” she said, beginning the chant, “Fed up! Fired up!” with the crowd.
“That is a union call that we have heard from the tops of the mountains in West Virginia, down to the hollers,” she said, invoking mine union organizers and protesters and the late Mother Jones.
“Abortion is a human right. Health care is a human right. Justice is a human right. Freedom is your birthright,” she said, giving a call to action to all attendees.
“Donate to the Women’s Health Care Center. Volunteer to be a clinic escort. Register to vote. Check your voter’s registration. Research the candidate. Check who has endorsed your candidate. Donate to the candidate. volunteer with the candidate. Be vocal and write opinion editorials and show up at the capitol in Charleston, because it is your house.”
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| Del. Danielle Walker D-Monongalia (center) provides the keynote address at the rally for reproductive rights in Lewisburg on Aug. 23. |
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| A community member at the abortion rally in the Lewisburg city Green Space Tuesday evening |
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| Former delegate and at-large member of the West Virginia State Executive Committee Cindy Lavender-Bowe |
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