13-year-old Clarksville girl leads dozens in downtown march for abortion rights

Thirteen-year-old Kassandra Dellinger said she's worried about her future and her ability to make decisions that will affect her life if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v Wade.

That's why she organized Friday's Women's Rights are Human Rights event in downtown Clarksville.

Kassandra worked with her mom, Vanessa Llanes, and their friend Brittney Stanfill to create a Facebook page to announce and promote the march before the Friday event.

“I think we have reached about 1,400 people,” Stanfill said. “Sixty people responded saying they would be here, and I think we actually have about seventy.”

The group's logo is a sign in pink, encouraging women to fight back, above a likeness of recently deceased Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. On Friday, the group started marching at the Tennessee Triumph Suffrage statue in front of F & M Bank and ended at the Montgomery County Courthouse.

As the crowd gathered, local attorney Jane Olson, who carried a sign reading “I stand with RBG” offered her thoughts on the subject

“I think the United States Constitution is a fluid document that through interpretation has evolved in many different ways over the years, since it was written and adopted by the country,” Olson said. “One of those ways is with Roe v Wade, where the Supreme Court found that their was a right to privacy, and they included the right to abortion in that right to privacy, and I believe that.

Olson says she is concerned about the future.

“I think the country is getting more and more conservative,” Olson said. “I'm afraid when people say contraception is next, that concerns me. That is one of the reasons I'm here. I'm under the impression that the state of Tennessee is already working to repeal Plan B. We also have what's knows as a trigger law here. The day the Supreme Court decision is made, all abortion becomes illegal in the state of Tennessee. And, I think that includes cases of rape and incest as well.”

Dozens of Pro Choice supporters assembled for the march, and they were mostly women, carrying signs.

Charles Uffelman is the candidate support chair for the Democratic Party and sits on the State Executive Committee of the Democratic Party. He took the lead from an organizational standpoint. He encouraged everyone to stay on the sidewalks, not to engage with hecklers, and even helped the group put together some chants.

Passers-by honked their horns in support of the group and no hecklers were encountered along the march.