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Tribune News Service

National

Ellen Moynihan and Larry McShane

Women's March of 2020 shows opposition to Barrett nomination, promotes anti-Trump voting

Supporters of President Trump confront participants in the 2020 Women's March as they walk past the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2020. (Yuri Gripas/Abaca Press/TNS)

NEW YORK _ Thousands of women across the U.S. marched in protest against the White House, rousted into action Saturday by President Donald Trump's choice of a conservative candidate to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Marches also were held in Washington, D.C., and dozens of satellite sites across the nation. The typically massive marches, launched after Trump's 2017 inauguration, saw the ranks limited this time by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Manhattan's march was the second such anti-Trump event this year, following a similar march in January. Since then marchers have been outraged by Trump's nomination of conservative Judge Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court seat vacated by the famously liberal Ginsburg's death. The Manhattan marchers, like many around the country, were particularly concerned about the possibly of a new, heavily conservative court overturning Roe V. Wade.

Participants in the 2020 Women's March walk past Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2020. (Yuri Gripas/Abaca Press/TNS)

Among the hundreds gathered in Manhattan, one protester raised a sign with the outline of a coat hanger and the blunt message, "Never Go Back." Other marchers dressed in red robes and white hats, like characters from "The Handmaid's Tale," as they headed downtown en masse.

Sharon Hodson, 53, traveled New York City from Merrick, L.I., with her 16-year-old daughter, Lily, to join the protesters who gathered at Washington Square Park. The teenager held a sign reading "Resist Like It's 1776."

"Her voice is important," explained Sharon Hodson. "I want to teach her that. What she has to say matters _ even under this administration, which would love to silence her. She still has rights and I want her to know that."

Supporters of President Trump watch as participants in the 2020 Women's March walk past the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2020. (Yuri Gripas/Abaca Press/TNS)

The protesters wore face coverings for the mid-pandemic protest and waved signs extolling Ginsburg and denouncing Trump. "Grab him by the ballot," read one pink sign with an image of four raised fists _ all with nail polish.

"No country for old men," declared another of the many signs.

Cynthia Altmann, 47, offered two reasons for traveling down from the Bronx: First, the proud mom's daughter, Ymoni Shavuo, was one of the organizers. And second?

"Because I'm a woman," she said. "It's as simple as that. The fight we're fighting today, we've been fighting for 50 years."

Mary Bacon, an actress from the Upper West Side, wore her hoodie from the first Women's March nearly four years ago in Washington.

"I knew this wasn't going to be as big, but I said, 'If I can go, I'm going to go,'" said Bacon. "Just to see all the different people from all ages, races, backgrounds here. That's what I needed to see. You're going to be a part of something bigger than you."

Participants in the 2020 Women's March interact with Pro-Life activists outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2020. (Yuri Gripas/Abaca Press/TNS)

Teen-aged Lily Hodson said she refused to stand by silently about issues that will impact her for decades going forward.

"It's for LGBTQ people, Native American people _ anybody who has some sort of discrepancy with how the system is," she said. "They're basically told, 'Don't go there. You can solve it quietly' ... You're not supposed to make a lot of noise about it."

"The first Women's March in 2017 was historic," said Rachel Carmona, executive director of Women's March, at the Washington rally. "Now four years later ... with 17 days to go (until the Nov. 3 election), we're going to finish what we started."