On June 22, about 50 people met at the common in Westford as part of Westford and Acton’s Indivisible Groups. Indivisible is a national grassroots movement that started in 2016 with a handbook on organizing locally to protect democracy. The Indivisible Acton Area and Indivisible Westford chapters are two of hundreds of chapters nationwide. The rally marked the two-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision (Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization) which eliminated the federal right to abortion that had been in place since the court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Access to abortion depends on a state’s laws. State Senator Jamie Eldridge (D-Marlborough) spoke, as did representatives of Indivisible.
Asked for comment after the event, Senator Eldridge wrote to the Acton Exchange, “On the two-year anniversary of the majority right-wing extremist Supreme Court’s destructive Dobbs decision repealing the Roe v. Wade right to an abortion, a huge thank you to Indivisible National for organizing post-Dobbs Reproductive Rights rallies across America, including Indivisible Acton and Westford chapters today at the Westford Town Common. I was proud, shaken and moved to attend and speak alongside dozens of progressive activists, almost all women, lifting up what is at stake in the November 2024 Presidential election, the frightening Project 2025 agenda that Donald Trump has promised to implement, what Massachusetts government has done and still needs to do on reproductive and transgender healthcare, and how to take action to protect women and other pregnant people’s rights.”
A list of policy goals of the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 was read, as was a list of Indivisible’s opposing visions of the future. The push to get out the vote was another theme. Activists stood at the roadside with signs, amid the misty morning clouds.
Nancy Savage is a resident of Acton.