Protest marchers took their calls for reproductive rights to the streets at noon on Saturday, Jan. 20, lining the sides of Sims Way with picket signs. From Safeway down to Kearney Street, members of the local chapters of League of Women Voters and the American Association of University Women joined a demonstration convened by Port Townsend Indivisible. 

Gina McMather, who is part of the group’s leadership team, described Port Townsend Indivisible as “a loose organization of local groups, that was formed to counter the MAGA agenda.” They meet on the second Tuesday of every month at the Unity Center on San Juan Avenue, presenting civic-minded activities that range from researching political candidates to writing postcards and letters to government officials.

Saturday’s event was focused on promoting reproductive health care rights for all, along with gearing up for an election year, McMather said.

“We want to give people encouragement, and keep up their spirits, even though this is still an issue that we still have to care about,” she said. “It’s better to do something, and take action, rather than just sitting around and worrying. We try to stay involved wherever we are, and the responses we’ve received have been heartening.”

By about noon that Saturday, they counted at least 80 participants in the protest, with the largest cluster in front of the Port Townsend Visitor Information Center on Jefferson Street. A few minutes later, as passing cars honked their horns, McMather estimated at least 20 more marchers joined the cluster across the street.

“This is probably the best attendance we’ve seen in years,” she said. “We’ve had a steady increase in interest as this election year has approached. I think a lot of people felt exhausted before, and had settled back down a bit, but our turnout now has got all sorts of people who aren’t even part of our groups.”

Mike Cornforth, a retired Navy officer who said his activism didn’t really begin in earnest until “the first, and hopefully only, Trump administration,” joined his wife, Linda Martin, whose activism dates back to her 20s, due to a painfully personal experience with this issue.

“That was when I had an almost-deadly illegal abortion in Missouri, in the late 1960s,” Martin said. She admitted that it feels “miserable and shameful” to have to raise her voice and a picket sign on the streets all over again, to protest this issue so many decades later.

“We did have a long gap, after Roe v. Wade in 1973, during which a lot of us thought this fight was done, and we devoted our attentions to other issues, but it came back,” Martin said. “At this point, we know who the likely Republican nominee is, and we know what his agenda is. It’s not good for women, it’s not good for minorities, and really, it’s not good for anyone except the ultra-wealthy. That’s why we have to keep at this.”