My great-grandmother, Florence Brooks Whitehouse, fought for women’s voting rights over 100 years ago.
In 1917 she appeared before the Maine Legislature’s Judiciary Committee to demand an amendment to our Constitution enfranchising women. She told them: “I have no quarrel with you/But I stand for the clear right/To hold my life my own/The clean, clear right/To mould it as I will/Not as you will, with or apart from me … .”
In 2024, women must continue to insist on “the clean, clear right” to mold our lives as we will in the face of repeated efforts from Republicans to deprive us of our rights to birth control, basic health care for miscarriages and abortion, and for equality under our state and federal constitutions.
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz support women’s freedom and equality, while former President Trump boasts of having ended abortion rights. Voters should elect Harris/Walz to protect women’s rights.
Anne Gass, Gray
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