Pro-choice rally in Greensburg offers support for abortion rights, scorn for Supreme Court

Dana Hiteshue stood Wednesday along Main Street in downtown Greensburg, joined by some 70 other people who voiced their support for women’s reproduction rights and shouted their disdain for the male-dominated Supreme Court that last week overturned the constitutional right to an abortion.

The mother of a daughter and grandmother of a young girl, Hiteshue said, “I’m here for their future, for their freedoms.”

A Greensburg resident, she stood across from the Westmoreland County Courthouse with the protesters holding a sign that read, “Not Your Uterus, Not Your Decision.”

Hiteshue said she was protesting not only to support the right to an abortion but to “support human rights and women’s rights.”

The 90-minute protest mainly drew women, some of whom brought their sons and daughters. It was organized by Westmoreland Racial and Social Justice, an activist group.

They held up signs, chanted slogans such as “2-4-6-8 separate the church and state” and “my body my choice, your body your choice.”

Many motorists driving along the intersection of Otterman and Main streets honked their horns and cheered.

One of those shouting for support of abortions rights was Tiffany Hizer of Donegal, who was joined by her 14-year-old daughter, Audrey.

“If we don’t have the authority over our body, what do we have?” said Hizer. “Her (Audrey’s) grandparents marched for these rights” that have been overturned, Hizer said.

Audrey Hizer said she was at the rally “because I think everything is going wrong. We are in real danger” of losing rights.

One of the youngest people at the rally was 1-year-old Davina Mackanick, sitting in a stroller next to her mother, Makayla Mackanick, 19, of Greensburg.

“I’m fighting for mine and for my daughter’s rights. Nobody should be forced to carry a pregnancy that they don’t want to carry,” Mackanick said. “If she (her daughter) doesn’t want a baby, that’s her choice.”

Abortion remains legal in Pennsylvania and does not have the restrictions that were triggered by the Supreme Court’s decision June 24. But Sarah Skidmore of Greensburg, a volunteer with the community activist group Voice of Westmoreland, warned bills are pending in the Republican-controlled state Legislature that would restrict access to abortion.

Gov. Tom Wolf has vetoed bills that would limit access to abortion, but the upcoming governor’s race features a staunch abortion opponent, Republican in Doug Mastriano, against a pro-choice Democrat, Josh Shapiro.

Barb Ciampini of Greensburg, the mother of an adult son, said, while she is past child-rearing age, the issue of a woman’s right to choose remains important to her.

“We want our rights back,” referring to the overturning of the 1973 Supreme Court decision.

A lone anti-abortion protester, Dan Rullo, 44, of Norvelt said he wanted to express the other side of the argument, holding up a sign stating “Abortion is Murder,” with the word “murder” written in red.

Rullo said he did not mind being the lone voice in the crowd among a sea of opponents because the 1973 Supreme Court decision instituting the federal right to an abortion “was highly flawed.”

“Life is the most fundamental thing there is,” Rullo said. “Without the right to life, nothing else matters.”

This story was updated to correct the spelling of the last name of Dana Hiteshue.