14 | OCTOBER 14 • 2021 

OUR COMMUNITY

T

here is a good chance 
Roe v Wade may be 
overturned as early as 
December. That was the star-
tling message abortion rights 
activists, religious leaders 
and Michigan state govern-
ment officials relayed to 400 
marchers at a West Bloomfield 
Women’s March on Oct. 2 at 
Temple Shir Shalom in West 
Bloomfield and a short march 
up and down Orchard Lake 
Road.
The march was one of 20 
or so in Michigan and 620 
around the country orga-
nized in response to the 
highly restrictive Texas law 
that bans abortion after six 
weeks — before most women 
know they are pregnant — 
and ahead of the Dec. 1 U.S. 
Supreme Court session that 
will examine a Mississippi 
ruling that will attempt to ban 
abortion at 15 weeks before 
the conservative 6-3 court. 
Speakers encouraged 
attendees to stay active and 
vigilant and keep pressure on 
elected officials at the state 

and federal levels to codify the 
historic 1973 ruling that legal-
ized abortion.
Mags Rose, an organizer 
with Planned Parenthood 
Generation Action’s Oakland 
University chapter, said 
though she is just 18 years old, 
she is terrified that she may 
come into adulthood at a time 
when reproductive rights may 
be taken away from her and 
millions of others. 
“What happened in Texas 
is unconstitutional,” she said. 
“In Texas, women will now 
be forced to carry a baby that 
they may not be ready for or 
want, and the state is mak-
ing that decision for them. 
Michigan is far off from Texas 
but not far enough.
“If the Supreme Court over-
turns Roe, would Michigan 
be right there with Texas as 
one of the states that bans 
safe, legal abortion after six 
weeks?” 
Rose said that abortions will 
still take place even after they 
are made illegal. 
“Why not make it safe?” 

she asked the crowd. “Why 
not prevent deaths that come 
with non-medical abortion 
techniques, why not stand 
with Planned Parenthood and 
the Woman’s March in their 
values and the idea that every-
one should have the right to 
decide what happens to their 
body?” 

TEMPLES RALLY
Shir Shalom member Melissa 
Kahn, 52, of Bloomfield Hills, 
her twin 14-year-old daugh-
ters Holland and Eva, and son 
Max, 16, organized the march, 
which was hosted by Temple 
Shir Shalom. Kahn solicited 
the participation of Temple 
Israel, the Birmingham 
Unitarian Church and 
Planned Parenthood.
Kahn remembers the 
power of marching for wom-
en’s reproductive rights in 
Washington, D.C., in 1990.
“When I first heard about 
these marches happening 
across the country, I wanted 
to gather like-minded people 
right here in West Bloomfield,” 

Two temples join protest against Texas anti-abortion law.

continued on page 15

STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Reform Jewish 
Movement’s 
Joint Statement 

We denounce, in the stron-
gest terms, the law that 
went into effect in Texas, 
effectively making abortion 
care illegal in that state. 
In the most insidious state 
abortion restriction adopt-
ed to date, this Texas law 
makes abortion illegal as 
early as six weeks, before 
many are even aware that 
they are pregnant. The law 
is manipulatively designed to 
thwart courts’ ability to pro-
tect reproductive freedom, 
prohibiting state officials 
from enforcing the law but 
empowering any Texan to 
sue any person — an abor-
tion provider, a counselor, a 
member of the clergy, a clinic 
worker, even a driver who 
delivers a person to a clinic, 
to name a few examples 
— who assists in accessing 
abortion care. For this rea-

Women March
for Reproductive Rights

Hundreds of marchers walked from Temple Shir Shalom 
to demonstrate their support for reproductive rights.

