Lilia Garcia was among those transfixed by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday.
Dr. Ford testified about her allegation that Kavanaugh, a Supreme Court nominee, had sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers. Kavanaugh repeatedly denied the claim.
"There was a couple of times I was disgusted and turned it off," said Garcia, who's from Gresham.
Then Garica thought about Ford – how she had to re-live a traumatic experience before the whole country. With that in mind, she tuned back in.
"I owed her that," Garcia said while holding a sign that read 'stand up fight back.'
Maureen Rowe Crawford and Lilia Garcia at a rally against Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court Sept. 28, 2018. "I want my girls to know just like my sign says: stand up and fight back," Garcia said, referring to her three daughters. "Don't be a doormat."
Ericka Cruz Guevarra / OPB
She was among dozens of women rallying in front of the World Trade Center in downtown Portland against Kavanaugh's nomination to the nation's highest court. NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon organized the impromptu rally. Similar actions took place nationwide.
"Thinking that we're still at a time when a woman can so powerfully tell her story and a group of senators could say 'it doesn't matter and we're going to move forward.' I'm sick and I'm enraged about it and I want a better world for our daughters," said Grayson Dempsey, NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon executive director.
Grayson Dempsey, executive director at NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon, leads protesters in a chant: "Justice for survivors, no Justice Kavanaugh!"
Ericka Cruz Guevarra / OPB
Laura Noble and Ali King stood shoulder to shoulder, draped in a red cloaks and white bonnets inspired by the hit television show "The Handmaid's Tale."
It was symbolic; the costume was restrictive, difficult to move in, hot and heavy. The bonnet blocked their peripheral vision.
"To me it symbolizes the restriction of women," said Laura Noble. "Hold our arms down, take away our vision and our sight, keep us quiet, shut down and bound. And that's what I see happening."
King said she remembers watching Anita Hill's hearing before some of the same senators in 1991. Hill accused then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment.
For King, abortion protections and change for women are impossible unless people take action at the ballot box.
"They can't just sit and post on Facebook," King said. "Nothing is going to change until we vote these people out and vote new people in."
Laura Noble and Ali King of Portland say they dressed like characters from the hit TV show Handmaids Tale to symbolize restrictions against women.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra / OPB
Dempsey wants the Senate Judiciary Committee to withdraw Kavanaugh's nomination entirely. If it doesn't happen, she plans to take action.
"If he's confirmed then my next step is making sure the rage of American women carries us through the midterms and beyond so we can take these jokers out," she said.
