With signs declaring “Abortion is health care” and chants of resistance, activists in dozens of cities across the country rallied in support of abortion rights on Sunday, the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, The landmark decision was annulled by the Supreme Courtabolish the constitutional right to abortion.
The events are expected to draw thousands from Honolulu to Hartford, making for the latest iteration of Women’s March, series of protests started in 2017 after the election of President Donald J. Trump. They follow closely March for Life in Washington, The annual anti-abortion protest was converted on Friday to a victory rally celebrating Roe’s return.
In Texas, leading in Strict abortion ban even before Roe’s fall, marchers gathered in downtown Dallas at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Plaza. In Boston, people rallied for abortion rights in the nation’s oldest public park, the Boston Common. In Florida, where Ban on abortion after 15 weeksMore than a dozen events have been scheduled.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaking at an event hosted by Planned Parenthood in Tallahassee, Fla .. In her speech, Ms. Harris denounced “radical” Republicans and “so-called leaders” in Florida for abortion restrictions and regulations forcing care providers health care “risks going to jail just for doing their job.”
She said that President Biden signed a memorandum directing agencies in the government to evaluate how the federal government can remove regulatory barriers for providers to prescribe abortion pills.
“Let us not get tired or discouraged,” Ms. Harris said. “Because we’re on the right side of history.”
The marches, seen as a way to attract newer activists and energize their ranks for a long fight ahead, also draw veterans like Diana Wiener, 82 age, who showed up at the event in New York City with a handmade sign she’d carried to protests for five years. year. The sign reads “Never again.”
Wiener said she had an illegal abortion in the Bronx in 1959, more than a decade before Roe v. Wade – an experience that angered her by the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn it, and she worries that too few young women are engaged in the fight for women’s rights.
She said: ‘They didn’t know what happened before that – we didn’t really have any contraception. The court’s decision “won’t end abortion, it will only kill women,” she added.
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In Madison, Wis., the day’s parade, thousands of women in thick coats and pink hats marched down State Street, the crowds quickly doubling, then tripling despite the 26-degree cold. Among the protesters was Kim Schultz, 63, a first-time Women’s March participant, who said she felt compelled to be there after losing Roe’s protection.
“It was unbelievable,” she said. “It is a step too far back. I’m just stunned and angry that we can go back in time like this.”
Women’s March national organizers say their emphasis on popular local actions — about 200 planned in 46 states — reflects the recent loss of federal protections. and the current primary importance of state politic.
“The fight at the federal level has nowhere to go,” said Rachel O’Leary Carmona, executive director of the Women’s March, the advocacy group that has grown since the first march. “The theater of battle has moved from national defenses, which have been gutted. All the wars in the coming years will be at the state level.
Anti-abortion activists have appeared at many events. In Dallas, a middle-aged man dressed in white with red spots, seemingly with blood-like intentions, blew gospel music from a microphone. In Madison, a lone protester held up a sign with an image of what appeared to be fetal tissue. The marchers hurried to cover his sign with the Black Lives Matter flag.
Michelle Anderson, 52, who participated in the Dallas march, said Black women have always had to fight harder for control of their own bodies, even before Roe was reversed. “White women aren’t going to do what they should – they’re too afraid to vote against their privileges – so we’re going to keep living through this time until they do,” she said.
Tamika Middleton, executive director of Women’s March, said many local events are led by fledgling activists with little or no prior experience, providing “an important opportunity for them to get involved. movements and deepen their relationship with politics”. “We want to lower the barrier to activism so they can overcome it.”
The organization, she said, plans to build on that initiation, as it does after past actions, engaging newly minted activists in ongoing conversations, while providing provide training and mentoring to develop their skills and establish lasting networks.
“It is very important to build the infrastructure in the states now for the election in two years,” Ms. Middleton said.
The first Women’s March, held on January 21, 2017, the day after Mr. Trump’s inauguration, drew millions of people to the streets in Washington and other cities around the country and the world. gender to oppose discrimination against women and support reproductive rights. and civil rights. The global event saw massive attendance again in January 2018, but attendance dropped in 2019 after accusations of anti-Semitism among some of its leaders.
The coronavirus pandemic further limits the Women’s March’s ability to host events and attract crowds. But since the shock of Roe’s decision, organizers say, a new energy has driven it forward, with strong performances at events held in May, after The court’s decision was leaked and made public, and again in October, to rally support in preparations for the midterm elections.
Organizers narrowed the focus of Sunday’s march from a range of feminist causes to the fight for access to abortion. They focused particular attention on the event in Madison, with anticipation of an April special election in the state that could change the composition of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and help determine the accessibility of the state. future pregnancy.
Opening her speech in Madison, Ms. Middleton, executive director of the Women’s March, dismissed the idea that activists were drowning in grief.
“The other side thinks we should mourn today,” Mrs. Middleton said, prompting boos from the crowd. “They don’t know us. Today, we remind them that our fight is not just about Roe — our fight is for complete reproductive freedom.”
Not all women’s rights groups plan to march. In Los Angeles, Emiliana Guereca, founder of the Women’s March Foundation, an independent nonprofit, said the organization will instead host a screening of the documentary “The Janes,” followed by a panel discussion. group discussion.
HBO documentary highlights the female activists who came together to found Jane, a clandestine group that provided safe abortions in the years before Roe v. Wade.
“We need to march to the offices of state legislators, not on weekends, and rally them and talk to them about what they are doing to protect reproductive rights,” Ms. Guereca said. .”
In downtown Atlanta, at an event organized by the NAACP and other groups to celebrate Roe’s anniversary, but not affiliated with Women’s March, a crowd of dozens of people held up banners. posters with the slogans “Gun Regulations, Not Women” and “Repeal the Georgia abortion ban.” State bans abortion after six weeks – before many women realize they are pregnant. Voter turnout on Sunday was significantly less than the march held in the summer, following Roe’s reversal, when thousands marched in the city.
Peyton Hayes, an organizer of the Socialist and Liberation Party, said the smaller crowd did not mean anyone had given up. In the future, she said, activists need to put pressure on the Republican-controlled state legislature to end the abortion ban.
In New York City, where protesters crept down Broadway, chanting and dodging pedestrians, Bruna Monia, 35, recalls crying when she first heard that Roe had flipped. Ms. Monia welcomed her first child Alice 18 months ago and said she is fighting for her daughter’s rights as well as her own.
She should have the right to choose what she does with her body, she said.
Tea Kvetenadze, Sean KeenanDeah Berry Mitchell and happy vik contribution report.
