Although the North Carolina General Assembly has adjourned, the grassroots group, Women Organizing for Wilmington, or WOW, will maintain its weekly schedule of protesting against local legislators’ support of recent bills that would tighten restrictions on abortion. Despite passage of the controversial legislation in state House and Senate, local demonstrators say they’ll voice their discord until the next state elections.
"Shame on Goolsby! Shame on Goolsby! Shame on Goolsby!"
This week’s Wilmingtonian dose of “Moral Mondays”--staged outside downtown’s historic courthouse rather than Senator Thom Goolsby’s office--features the usual sights of bright pink and pro-choice signage, plus several dressed in “pregnant and barefoot” costumes to protest what they say is legislature aimed at reversing women’s progress. Although the number of protesters appears to have dwindled, Lynn Shoemaker, a facilitator for WOW, reports that the group is only becoming bigger, and more vehement.
"Our contact base just in the last two weeks has tripled, and since word is starting to get out and we’re finding that since it is something local people can come to during their lunch hour and it doesn’t affect their employment, that they’re very interested."
On Monday, Governor McCrory signed the controversial legislation concerning abortion into law.