There is an America that we love. She is America the Beautiful. The Land of the Free. She is the America whose Statue of Liberty proclaims:

“Give me your tired, your poor,

your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,…

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

She is the America that welcomes all and respects all, regardless of race, gender, religion or ethnicity. She is the America that supports democracy and freedom around the world. The America that respects the inherent worth and dignity of every person.

She has been a beacon of hope to suppressed peoples around the world.

Last night, we were deeply saddened to see the public take what we view as a turn toward the Darkness. After twice electing an African American President, and seemingly diminishing 300 years of racism, last night the public elected a man supported by the KKK and the alt-right. A man who openly calls Latinos crossing the border from Mexico to be “rapists”, and who urges his followers to beat up African American protesters at his rallies. A man who proposes banning all Muslims, and deporting all 10,000,000 undocumented people who he disrespects by labeling them as “criminal illegal aliens”.

Trump is also a man who insults women, disrespects women, and sexually assaults women. He is a man who views women as sexual objects, even objectifying his own daughter – on television. Who brags that he can “grab” women wherever he wants, because he is “a star”. And these aren’t just words – more than 12 women have come forward complaining that he has sexually assaulted them.

Trump is also a man who wants to repeal Roe vs. Wade and take away a woman’s right to abortion and to make reproductive choices about her own body. For women, Donald Trump wants to turn the clock back to the 1950s – a time in America when women had no freedom of choice over their own bodies, and sexual harassment by employers was perfectly legal and normal – anytime, anywhere. Women had no choice but to let men like Trump “do whatever I want”. Perhaps Trump truly does want to “Make America Great Again” – for rapists!

Possibly even more terrifying, Trump also promotes the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and claims that climate change is a “hoax” perpetrated by the “Chinese”.

We are saddened, deeply, that the American public would reject the first woman president and, instead, elect this divisive man to be their President. It is a turn toward the dark emotions of racism, sexism, bigotry, xenophobia. We cannot fight all of these forces, but American Women’s Services vows to continue our fight to protect women’s rights and women’s freedom of choice. We are the only abortion provider in the USA to have 2 of our doctors and 1 escort murdered by “pro-life” assassins. We have been fire-bombed, attacked, shot, and murdered, but we will not give up! We will continue to fight for women. We will continue to brave anti-choice protesters and harassment by anti-choice government officials – such as Trump, Pence, Christie or any of their appointees. We will resist Trump and his cronies to the best of our abilities.

And we will hold out hope that the America that we love will come back. That sanity will return. That Lincoln’s “Better Angels of Our Nature” will once again prevail, and that we will step out of the Darkness and back into the Light. Until then, we will resist and fight on for the freedom of all women and of all people.