Hundreds of people gathered on the Statehouse lawn in Montpelier on Saturday for the Vermont Women’s Rally. The sign-waving crowd chanted “Not going back!” as people threw their support behind Vice President Kamala Harris in the final days of the presidential election.
The event coincided with women’s marches across the country this weekend as abortion and reproductive rights have taken center stage as a key issue in the campaign. Polls show Harris consistently leading among young women, while former president Donald Trump leads among young men.
Harris would be the first woman ever elected president, an honor many thought Hillary Clinton would earn in the 2016 campaign.
It’s the first presidential election since Trump-installed U.S. Supreme Court justices helped overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, a decision that led many Republican-led states to severely limit abortion access. Vermont, meanwhile, took the opposite tack and chose to make abortion a constitutionally protected right.
“It’s women who are going to decide the outcome of this election,” 91-year-old Madeleine Kunin, the first and only woman ever elected governor of Vermont, told the crowd. “The whole question of women’s autonomy, of our ability to control our own bodies, that is what is at stake.”
Organizer Melinda Moulton brought together the same group of volunteers from the Women’s March on Montpelier in 2017. At that rally, held to protest Trump’s inauguration, Vermonters turned out in such large numbers — between 15,000 and 20,000 people — that authorities had to temporarily close exits on Interstate 89.
“We have to stand up for democracy and for women’s rights,” Moulton told Seven Days before the event. “They’re having [rallies] all over the nation. Vermont should have one, too.”
Many rallygoers sported pink knitted beanies with cat ears, known as “pussy hats,” and carried signs in support of Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called Trump a demagogue and warned that the former president will make false claims of voter fraud no matter the election’s outcome.
“He will do anything, including breaking all of the rules to win this election,” Sanders told the crowd. “We cannot allow that to happen.”
Other speakers included U.S. Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), a representative for U.S. Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.), Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark and Vermont poet laureate Bianca Stone.
Many emphasized that although Vermont passed an amendment to its state constitution codifying the right to abortion in 2022, a federal abortion ban would supersede that protection. Last month, Trump vowed to veto any potential federal abortion ban after previously declining to answer questions on the subject.
First-year Essex High School student Fern Brayton, 15, attended the rally with her mom and grandmother. The family came with signs that read “Mind your own uterus,” “I am a nasty woman,” “My body, my choice,” and “If you are against abortion, don’t have one!”
Though not yet old enough to vote, Brayton is eager to make her voice heard. In 2017, she took the train to Washington, D.C., to attend the Women’s March held the day after Trump’s inauguration.
“Especially right now, it’s really important to talk about these issues,” Brayton said. “Our rights and our freedoms are in jeopardy.”
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This article appears in Oct 30 – Nov 5, 2024.
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