D.C., MD. & VA.

Outside Kavanaugh’s home, a neighbor rallies for abortion rights

By Ellie Silverman
Today at 10:00 a.m. EDT



Lacie Wooten-Holway protests near the Chevy Chase home of her neighbor Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post)

Lacie Wooten-Holway walked through Chevy Chase on Wednesday night, pausing to stick fliers on her fence, a tree and utility boxes. She was advertising an abortion rights protest here, in her neighborhood, in front of the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. ... A passing couple paused, reading her sign: “HONK 4 REPRO Rights and Bodily Autonomy.”

“Good!” the woman said. ... “That I don’t agree with,” the man interjected. “I think you vote, and you expand the court. You don’t go to a guy’s house.” ... She had heard the argument before and responded: “I organize peaceful candlelit vigils in front of his house. … We’re about to get doomsday, so I’m not going to be civil to that man at all.”

For months, Wooten-Holway, a 39-year-old teaching assistant and aftercare staffer, mother of two and the youngest of five sisters, has taken the unusual step of protesting a neighbor. ... Usually she is the only neighbor there — a reminder that with every march and chant she is breaking an unspoken contract of civility.

In Chevy Chase, just beyond the District line, geniality among neighbors has long been part of the social code. But Wooten-Holway — who has had an abortion and is a survivor of sexual assault — cannot separate the politics from the personal. ... With the leak of a draft opinion indicating the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to abortion, she says, the stakes are too high. ... Neighbors tell her this kind of protest is disrespectful in a place they believe should be a private, family-friendly escape from bitter Washington politics.

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Wooten-Holway marches toward Kavanaugh's home in January with her 16-year-old child, Patience Wooten-Messore, and other supporters. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post)

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Gift Article
https://wapo.st/3LTS8vV

By Ellie Silverman
Ellie Silverman covers protest movements, activism and local news. At The Post, she has also covered local crime and courts. She has previously reported on retail, breaking news and general assignment stories for the Philadelphia Inquirer, her hometown paper. She graduated from the University of Maryland, where she reported for the Diamondback. Twitter https://twitter.com/esilverman11