Abortion rights backers rally in Greenport, Port Jefferson Station

Irene Dinerstein of Commack protested for the right to abortion more than a half-century ago, before abortion was legalized in New York in 1970 and made legal nationwide in the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.

On Saturday, she and about 75 others rallied in Port Jefferson Station, in the aftermath of the court in June overturning Roe, which led to states banning the procedure and a congressional proposal to institute a partial ban nationwide.

“I fought for that in the '60s,” said Dinerstein, 79, as some passing drivers on Route 347 honked horns in support of the rally. “I’m so sorry to see this now because we’re going backwards.”

The rally was one of hundreds of “Women’s Wave” demonstrations across the country Saturday, a month before the Nov. 8 midterm elections. A key goal is to elect candidates who support abortion rights and women’s rights in general, organizers said.

The rallies occurred as battles rage in states across the country on proposed bans or additional restrictions on abortion. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has proposed a nationwide ban on abortions at 15 weeks or later.

Pastor Joni Lupis, president of March for Life New York and a Wading River resident, said Saturday evening that supporters of abortion rights are the ones taking away freedom.

“Babies have a right to live,” she said. “If they take away your right to live, your right to life, you have no freedom.” 

There was at least one other abortion rights rally on Long Island on Saturday, in Mitchell Park in Greenport. The coordinator of that event, Sarah Burnes, said by phone that about 200 people demonstrated for abortion rights, but for other issues as well, including voting rights and same-sex marriage, which some legal analysts said is under threat after the end of Roe.

“We need to get out the vote to protect our freedoms,” Burnes said.

At Manhattan’s Foley Square, hundreds chanted “abortion on demand and without apology!”

Retired orthopedic nurse Susan Gitlin, 69, of Manhattan’s Upper East Side, wore a sign around her neck fashioned out of a cardboard pizza box: “Women’s rights are human rights.”

Asked about the belief of opponents to abortion, that the fetus is a human life worthy of legal protection, she said, “A fetus, I don’t think, in my opinion, is a human being.” 

Holly Fils-Aime, 66, a Port Jefferson president and an organizer of the Port Jefferson Station rally, said even though New York has strong abortion-rights laws, members of Congress from Long Island will be able to vote on nationwide abortion restrictions that would override New York’s laws.

Tamara Tamarashvili, 24, said she emigrated from the country of Georgia a year ago, in part because she saw the United States as a more free country. She was shocked to see how some U.S. states now have more abortion restrictions than her homeland.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future,” she said of herself. “But as a young woman, I want to have the choice. And I will fight for freedom.”

Beth Gonzalez, 69, of Northport, said her grandmother died of an illegal abortion in 1926. She said she never thought she would have to worry that women today would have to resort to potentially risky illegal procedures.

“What happened is some of us got a false sense of security,” Gonzalez said.

Megan Jurik, 34, of East Northport, was born after Roe. She was carrying a sign that said “The GOP Stole Our Right to Choose,” to underline how Republican presidents appointed the Supreme Court justices who made abortion bans possible, and how that illustrates that elections matter.

“I didn’t think rights could be taken away,” she said. “There are so many women in our older generation who are here fighting for a right they had and then was lost.”

With Matthew Chayes

By David Olson

david.olson@newsday.com@DavidOlson11

David Olson covers health care. He has worked at Newsday since 2015 and previously covered immigration, multicultural issues and religion at The Press-Enterprise in Southern California.