tr?id=&ev=PageView&noscript=

North Texans rally for reproductive freedom at People’s March

011825-fort-worth-peoples-march-KS – 1

Hundreds of Dallas-Fort Worth residents rallied at the Tarrant County Courthouse for reproductive freedom during the People’s March on Jan 18, just two days before the start of President Donald Trump’s second term. (Photo by Katie Serrano)

By Katie Serrano

January 22, 2025

Nearly 500 people gathered at the Tarrant County Courthouse to express their anger over a second Trump administration, and celebrate their resilience.

In 2017, thousands of people came together across the country the day after President Donald Trump’s first inauguration to rally for reproductive rights and protest his administration at the first Women’s March.

Eight years later, ahead of Trump’s second term, people across the country once again joined together for the newly dubbed People’s March. 

In Fort Worth, attendees gathered at the Tarrant County Courthouse on Jan. 18 to protest Trump and rally for public education, LGBTQ+ rights, free speech, democracy, and, most prominently, reproductive freedom.

When registered nurse and North Texas resident Melanie Rummel was a few months pregnant, she found out that her baby girl had a genetic disorder and would not survive birth. She and her husband then made the difficult decision to have an abortion.

“She was suffering,” Rummel told a crowd of nearly 500 people. “At that point, my baby needed me to help her. She needed us to be strong enough to end her suffering with an abortion. The doctor understood. But then she said this, that because of the state laws of Texas, I can’t tell you anything about it.”

The Texas Heartbeat Act — a law prohibiting abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is as early as five or six weeks — took effect in 2021. At the time, the law was the most stringent state abortion ban in the country.

In 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ruling there is no federal constitutional right to abortion.

“Where do we go for help? The doctor couldn’t tell us. What’s the procedure like? The doctor couldn’t tell us. Will I be able to get pregnant again?  The doctor couldn’t tell us,” Rummell said.

That’s when Rummel realized that this wasn’t a private conversation between two grieving parents and a trusted medical professional. 

“The fourth entity in that doctor’s office who knew nothing about us, knew nothing about our baby, had no medical knowledge at all, and certainly no compassion, was the state government of Texas,” Rummel said. “Nobody expects that you could lose your fertility or your life from an ectopic pregnancy because the hospital refuses to treat you because of how they are threatened by these laws.”

Three women have died in Texas due to the state’s strict abortion bans, according to ProPublica.

On Oct. 30, the media outlet shared the story of Josseli Barnica, who died after a hospital told her it would be a crime to intervene in her miscarriage. One day later, ProPublica shared the story of 18-year-old Neveah Crain, who died after she tried to get care in three visits to emergency rooms. On Nov. 25, it told the story of 35-year-old mother of two Porsha Ngumezi, who died after suffering a miscarriage at 11 weeks.

“ Families are being devastated. Babies are suffering and people are dying,” Rummel said. “But it doesn’t have to keep happening. Ken Paxton, Greg Abbott, vote them out. Extremist politicians who think our bodies and our pregnancies belong to them, vote them out.”

North Texans rally for reproductive freedom at People's March - Courier Texas

Hundreds of people took part in the People’s March in Fort Worth to support a variety of issues, including public education, LGBTQ+ rights, democracy, and reproductive freedom. (Photo by Katie Serrano)

 

‘We cannot let our anger turn into hate’

Josh Lucas, a Democrat running for mayor of Fort Worth this year,  emphasized the need for local leaders to hear about these issues. He told the crowd that the Republican Party in Texas has been taken over by right-wing extremists who’ve used religion as a form of control over women’s bodies.

“I’m a Democrat, I’m an uncle, and I’m a Christian,” Lucas said. “And as a Christian, let me tell you that the government has no business being in the doctor’s office with you. It really comes down to control. This isn’t about children or religious values or about being pro-life. It’s about billionaires out in West Texas who’ve bought and paid for our legislature. It’s anti-abortionist and it’s all about their control, it’s not about babies’ lives.” 

To close out the rally, transgender woman Rhiannon Jones offered attendees a message of hope leading into the next four years of the Trump administration. 

“My heart breaks for my 40-year-old daughter, who lost the rights she’s had since she was born. My heart breaks for all of the women, all of us, everywhere,” Jones said. “But we cannot let our anger, our disgust, our wanting to change things, we cannot let that turn into hate. If we do, we are no different from those who are opposed to us. The world that we want to create based on love, equality, humanity, and recognizing each person as an individual, that world will not be created by people who hate.”

“We are resilient. We are determined, and we are definitely more dangerous than any right wing politician could ever conceive,” she added. “We will take our country back. We will prevail. We will. We are the people.”

Shortly after Trump took office on Monday, his administration took down reproductiverights.gov, a website launched by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that contained information on reproductive health care, access to abortion, and a Know-Your-Rights patient fact sheet.

 

Author

  • Katie Serrano

    Katie Serrano is the DFW Political Reporter for Courier Texas. She received both her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree from the University of Arkansas in Editorial Journalism and News Narratives. She is passionate about making local journalism accessible and engaging young audiences, and has worked in editing, content management, newsletter production, social media marketing and data reporting. When not obsessing over the news she can be found with her nose in a romance novel, walking her Bernese Mountain Dog around her Lower Greenville neighborhood, or watching reruns of The Great British Bake Off.

Politics

Related Stories