© 2024 Connecticut Public

FCC Public Inspection Files:
WEDH · WEDN · WEDW · WEDY
WECS · WEDW-FM · WNPR · WPKT · WRLI-FM · WVOF
Public Files Contact · ATSC 3.0 FAQ
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Outraged by Dobbs decision, Vermont neighbors host bike ride for reproductive liberty amendment

A woman wearing a black shirt and a blue helmet faces away from the camera holding the handle bars of a bike. The back of her shirt has a pink sticker in the shape of Vermont that says "Repro Ride"
Lexi Krupp
/
Vermont Public
Over 100 people came out for the Repro Ride, held in Pomfret. The event raised nearly $15,000 for the ballot measure to establish a constitutional right to abortion in Vermont.

On a sunny morning in September, dozens of people drove up a dirt road in Pomfret for a mountain bike ride. There were volunteers in bright pink shirts, families with little kids, and athletes decked out in helmets and fanny packs.

Two of the organizers — Leah Skypeck and Jordie Jusidman, both from Pomfret — addressed the first group of riders.

“Of course today is about empowering ourselves to have the life that we want, bike the route we want, have self-determination,” Skypeck said. “In November we got to ...” she trailed off. “Turn out the vote!” Jusidman finished for her.

The event was a fundraiser for Vermont’s reproductive liberty amendment, or Prop 5. If passed, it would enshrine existing protections on abortion access already in Vermont law into the state Constitution, so those laws couldn’t be changed down the line.

Along the side of a dirt road, a wooden sign attached to a tree says "Parking" with a poster beneath it that says "biking for bodily autonomy"
Lexi Krupp
/
Vermont Public
The ride started in front of Leah Skypeck’s house, on trails she helped build with friends and family. She hadn't heard about Vermont’s reproductive liberty amendment until the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

The ride started in front of Skypeck’s house, on trails she helped build with friends and family.

A few months earlier though, Skypeck hadn’t heard anything about the proposed amendment. She didn’t know it existed. What got her here, standing in front of these strangers, was the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

“After the Dobbs decision in late June, I wasn’t angry, I was just sad,” Skypeck told me. She’s a physician assistant, and wasn’t very involved with politics before this summer.

“I found the things I really loved kind of seemed pointless. Like running or riding or hanging out with friends, it was like, ‘Well what’s the point?’ There’s this bigger issue that feels so huge,” Skypeck said.

“This was like a bolt of lightning. There really was a before-Dobbs and an after-Dobbs experience.”
Professor Felicia Kornbluh, University of Vermont

Driving to work one morning, listening to the radio, she heard an interview with a community organizer describing exactly how she was feeling — that pointlessness — and what she could do about it.

“It’s like she came out of the radio and was talking to me,” Skypeck said. “She sort of gave advice about how to turn things you enjoy into mechanisms for action.”

It gave her this idea she couldn’t get out of her head: Organizing a gravel and mountain bike ride and run. “And all the money — the entry fee could go to a cause supporting this effort to protect reproductive rights,” Skypeck said.

The cause she found was Prop 5, or Article 22, Vermont's reproductive liberty amendment. Skypeck told Jusidman, and another neighbor, an artist named Sarah Lauridsen, about the idea, and they agreed to help.

Four mountain bike riders head up a dirt road.
Lexi Krupp
/
Vermont Public
For Skypeck, biking is a metaphor for self-determination. The slogan of the ride was, "biking for bodily autonomy."

The ride they put together was part of a bigger movement happening all over the country after the overturning of Roe.

“This was like a bolt of lightning. There really was a before-Dobbs and an after-Dobbs experience,” said Felicia Kornbluh, a professor at the University of Vermont who studies feminist activism. “It was so great that people [in Vermont] had something positive to focus their energy around, and not just to think about the negative.”

Kornbluh is also on the board of Planned Parenthood Vermont Action Fund, which is supporting the campaign to pass the amendment. She’s traveled throughout the state talking about it, like recently at a temple in South Burlington.

“I could just kind of feel in the room when I said to people, 'Look, we need your help,'” she said. “We have an opportunity to do something that would really codify these rights in Vermont law, but we also have the opportunity to say something to the national conversation.”

Three people stand together with their arms around each other with green fields and hills in the background.
Lexi Krupp
/
Vermont Public
Jordie Jusidman, Leah Skypeck and Sarah Lauridsen live close to each other in Pomfret. In July, they started organizing a bike ride and run to raise money for the Vermont for Reproductive Liberty campaign.

It seems like that message has resonated. There’s been a ton of money thrown around for ads and canvassing on both sides of this campaign: more than $1 million, as of the beginning of October.

The executive director at Vermont Right to Life says their donations are up by about 15% this year.

And the major group opposing the amendment — Vermonters for Good Government — has received donations from more than 1,500 people.

“We now have yard signs from Brattleboro to Island Pond,” said Matthew Strong, the executive director. “It’s definitely what I would consider a gubernatorial campaign-level effort.”

A yellow yard sign reads "Vote no on prop 5 article 22" on a grass lawn, next to the ride, with several houses visible on the street.
Matthew Smith
/
Vermont Public
A group opposing the amendment — Vermonters for Good Government — has received donations from more than 1,500 people in Vermont.

At the ride in Pomfret, many people said they were there supporting Prop 5, because of the Dobbs decision.

“When all this stuff started to happen and turn back the clock, it became on my radar,” said Jason Michaelides from Stowe. “I wasn’t paying attention to it before that. But once I heard about it, I was like, of course Vermont’s going to do something like that.”

It looks like the measure will pass. A recent poll by the University of New Hampshire found that three-quarters of Vermonters surveyed would vote to ratify the amendment.

And Vermont isn’t alone. Two other states — California and Michigan — have ballot measures that would establish a constitutional right to abortion. They also have a good chance of passing on Election Day.

A white plate attached to a tree with a green arrow above a pink outline of Vermont.
Lexi Krupp
/
Vermont Public
A recent poll by the University of New Hampshire found that three-quarters of Vermonters surveyed would vote to ratify the reproductive liberty amendment.

Lexi Krupp is a corps member for Report for America, a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and regions.

_

Lexi covers science and health stories for Vermont Public.

Stand up for civility

This news story is funded in large part by Connecticut Public’s Members — listeners, viewers, and readers like you who value fact-based journalism and trustworthy information.

We hope their support inspires you to donate so that we can continue telling stories that inform, educate, and inspire you and your neighbors. As a community-supported public media service, Connecticut Public has relied on donor support for more than 50 years.

Your donation today will allow us to continue this work on your behalf. Give today at any amount and join the 50,000 members who are building a better—and more civil—Connecticut to live, work, and play.

Related Content