With signs proclaiming “Abortion Is a Health Care” and anti-retaliation chants, activists in dozens of cities across the country united in support of abortion rights on Sunday, the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, a landmark decision reversed by the Supreme Court. removing the legal right to abortion.
The event, which was expected to draw thousands of people from Honolulu to Hartford, forms the latest installment of the Women’s March, a series of demonstrations that began in 2017 after the election of President Donald J. Trump. They largely followed the March for Life in Washington, an annual anti-abortion demonstration that turned Friday into a triumphant rally celebrating the repeal of Roe.
In Texas, which led the way to ban abortion even before Roe was overturned, marchers gathered in downtown Dallas at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Plaza. In Boston, people rallied for abortion rights at the nation’s oldest public park, Boston Common. In Florida, which bans abortion after 15 weeks, more than a dozen events were organized.
Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at an event hosted by Planned Parenthood in Tallahassee, Fla. In her speech, Ms. Harris criticized “extremist” Republicans and “so-called leaders” in Florida for banning abortions and laws that compel health care providers. “Risk going to jail for doing their job.”
He added that President Biden signed a memorandum directing agencies across the state to examine how the state can remove legal barriers to abortion providers.
“Let’s not get tired or discouraged,” said Mrs. Harris. “Because we are on the right side of history.”
The tours, which are seen as a way to connect with new fighters and encourage their groups to fight for the long term, have also attracted veterans like Diana Wiener, 82, who appeared at the New York City event with a hand-made sign that she participated in five demonstrations. age. In this text are the words “There shall be no more.”
Ms. Wiener claimed she had an illegal abortion in the Bronx in 1959, more than a decade after Roe v. Before Wade was there – which made him very angry at the Supreme Court’s decision to end the problem, and he complains that few girls are dating. by fighting for women’s rights.
“They don’t know what happened before – we didn’t have a birth control system,” she said. The court decision “will not stop abortion, it will only kill women,” he added.
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In Madison, Wis., for the day’s event, thousands of women wearing thick coats and pink hats marched down State Street, the crowd quickly swelled, then tripled despite the 26-degree cold. Among the protesters was Kim Schultz, 63. , participants in the first Women’s March who said they were forced to attend after losing Roe’s protections.
He said: “It’s hard to believe. “It’s too far to go back. I was shocked and angry that we could go back in time like this. “
National organizers of the Women’s March said their emphasis on public events – about 200 were organized in 46 states – reflects the recent loss of federal protection, and the greater importance, now, of state politics.
“The war in the state is like nowhere else,” said Rachel O’Leary Carmona, head of the Women’s March, an advocacy group that started on March 1. “The drama of war has shifted from national security, which has been destroyed. All the battles of the coming years will be on the government.”
Opponents of abortion have reached several milestones. In Dallas, a middle-aged man dressed in white clothes stained with red, which appeared to resemble blood, blasted gospel music from a microphone. In Madison, the only protester had a sign with images of what appeared to be fetal tissue. Drivers rushed to cover his sign with a Black Lives Matter flag.
Michelle Anderson, 52, who joined Dallas, said black women have always had to fight for the right to control their bodies, even before Roe was changed. “White women won’t do what they need to do — they’re too afraid to vote against their privilege — so we’re going to stay until they do,” she said.
Many of the local events were led by activists who had little or no experience, giving them “an important opportunity to join the movement and deepen their relationship with politics,” said Tamika Middleton, executive director of the Women’s March. “We want to make the barrier very low for them to cross.”
The organization plans to take this further, he said, as it has done in the past, engaging newbies in conversations and providing training and mentoring to develop their skills and establish lasting networks.
“It is very important to build infrastructure in the districts now in two years,” said Ms. Middleton.
The first Women’s March, which took place on January 21, 2017, shortly after Trump’s inauguration, drew millions of people to the streets of Washington and other cities around the country and the world to protest against violence and to stand up for childbirth. and human rights. The international event once again took center stage in January 2018, but attendance dropped in 2019 after allegations of anti-Semitism among its leadership.
The coronavirus pandemic has also reduced the ability of the Women’s March to hold events and attract people. But since the shock of the decision of Roe, the organizers said, the introduction of new powers has advanced, and demonstrated strongly in the events that took place in May, after the decision of the court and it was known, and again in October, to encourage support in the preparation of mid-term elections.
Organizers downplayed the focus of Sunday’s march from more about women’s rights to fighting for abortion rights. They paid special attention to the Madison event, in anticipation of an April special election in the state that could change the face of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and help determine abortion access in the future.
Opening the speech in Madison, Ms. Middleton, the organizer of the Women’s March, dismissed the idea that women’s rights activists are in mourning.
“One part thinks we should cry today,” said Ms. Middleton, drawing a crowd. “They don’t know us. Today we remind them that our fight is not just about Roe – our fight is about reproductive rights. “
Not all women’s rights groups planned to march. In Los Angeles, Emiliana Guereca, founder of the Women’s March Foundation, a non-profit organization, said instead that she is holding a screening of “The Janes” followed by a discussion.
The HBO documentary shows the feminists who came together to form Jane, a secret society that offered safe abortions in the Roe v. Before Wade was.
“We need to march to the offices of state legislators, not on weekends,” said Mrs. Guereca, “and bring them to the barn and talk to them about what they are doing to protect reproductive rights.”
In downtown Atlanta, at an event organized by the NAACP and other groups to mark the anniversary of Roe, but not associated with the Women’s March, a small crowd held signs that read “Regulate Guns Not Women” and “Repeal Prohibition.” Pregnancy in Georgia.” The government bans abortions after six weeks – before many women even realize they are pregnant. The number of people on Sunday was much smaller than the march that took place in the summer, after the Roe amendment, when thousands marched in the city.
Peyton Hayes, organizer of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, said the low turnout doesn’t mean everyone has lost hope. Looking ahead, he said, activists should pressure the Republican-controlled legislature to repeal the abortion ban.
In New York City, where protesters marched down Broadway, chanting and dodging pedestrians, Bruna Monia, 35, recalled crying when she first heard Roe had been toppled. Ms Monia welcomed her first child, Alice, 18 months ago, and said she is fighting for her daughter’s rights and her own.
He said: “He should have the right to decide what to do with his body.”
It’s Kvetenadze, Sean KeenanDeah Berry Mitchell is Vik Jolly contributed reports.
