We march together because we refuse to let them drag us back.

The parking lot at the Hyatt Regency in Monterey was jam packed on Jan. 17. Throngs of women, along with quite a few good men, were there to attend the Planned Parenthood Mar Monte luncheon in honor of the 44th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

In that lot, I came across a sign directing people where to go. It read, “Event.” No mention of Planned Parenthood, no mention of Roe v. Wade. Simply “event.”

Planned Parenthood Mar Monte raised an astounding $67,517 from attendees during the event, and they raised a hell of a lot more before it with a $125 ticket price and various levels of table sponsorships. But that sign was a good reminder that if the lunatic fringe had been aware of where the event was taking place, they would have shown up to disrupt it or possibly even worse.

It’s a good reminder that as we stand up for the constitutionally protected right to privacy in our relationships with our physicians, and to exercise our right to have domain over our own bodies, we still sometimes have to hide in plain sight.

As Monterey County Supervisor Jane Parker put it in her opening remarks, with Vice President-elect Mike Pence saying he plans to see Roe v. Wade consigned to the ash heap of history: “Welcome to the fight of our lives.”

Here are some fast observations from that event and beyond as we make the tortuous slog to the inauguration of President Pussy Grabber on Friday.

One: Konny Murray, longtime Carmel Valley resident and the outgoing president of the Democratic Women of Monterey County, recounted the horrific story of leaving her home in Indiana at age 17 in 1963 to seek the services of a back-alley abortionist on the South Side of Chicago. She had tried, and failed, to end the pregnancy on her own, and over a long month, she stealthily pulled money from her father’s wallet and her mother’s purse to pay for the service.

“I walked up the steps to a small brick house,” Murray said, “and there was nothing about it that said it would be a place for a safe medical procedure.” The woman at the door carefully examined the bills Murray handed over, making sure they weren’t marked, and led her in.

There, the abortionist injected a fluid into her womb and packed her with cotton gauze, telling her she couldn’t remove it for three days.

Her entreaty to the group at the luncheon, 54 years later: Join her in fighting to keep these very personal decisions between a woman and her doctor, because in the days before Roe v. Wade, back-alley abortions were a harsh reality.

Two: Former U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, the event’s keynote speaker, recalled a battle she had with then-Sen. Rick Santorum (“The man who would be president. Not,” she quipped) when Santorum brought hand-made drawings of women’s genitals to the floor of the Senate to give a lecture on how babies are born and proclaimed that abortion is murder.

“We are never going back. Never, ever, ever going back,” Boxer said. “This is a matter of life or death we’re dealing with here.”

Three: Pre-speakers, probably the biggest discussion going at the tables involved the upcoming marches in support of women’s rights. There’s the big one scheduled to take place in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, which over 200,000 people are expected to attend. There’s the one starting at 3pm Saturday with music and speeches at the Civic Center in San Francisco, and another starting at 10am in Oakland at Ninth and Madison. And even more locally, there’s a march and speeches starting at 1pm at the main quad at CSU Monterey Bay.

Our newly installed congressman, Jimmy Panetta, says he plans on attending the inauguration despite his disgust with Donald Trump’s insults, especially the latest round directed at civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia. He will attend because 100 students from the Salinas Dream Academy are going to be there, and his office will be open so he can greet any local constituents who are in D.C.

But the next day, Panetta told me at the Planned Parenthood lunch, he will march with those 200,000-plus others in support of women.

MARY DUAN writes The Local Spin for Monterey County Weekly. Reach her at mary@mcweekly.com