WASHINGTON — Hundreds of marchers converged within the nation’s capital and throughout the nation on Saturday to point out their help for abortion rights practically two weeks after the leak of a Supreme Court docket draft opinion that may overturn Roe v. Wade.
A crowd of protesters gathered close to the Washington Monument earlier than marching to the Supreme Court docket, with some sporting shirts that learn “Bans Off Our Our bodies” and “Hold Abortion Protected and Authorized.” They vowed to battle to protect abortion rights, whilst some accepted that Roe would almost definitely be overturned.
Colleen Lunsford, 42, a lawyer from Arlington, Va., introduced her 5-year-old daughter, Orla. Pointing to her daughter, she mentioned she attended the march for “her future and autonomy.”
“I’m terrified,” Ms. Lunsford mentioned. “We did our greatest to elect a Democratic president and Home and Senate, and that is nonetheless occurring.”
Greater than 450 marches throughout the nation had been set to happen on Saturday, mentioned Rachel O’Leary Carmona, the chief director of the Girls’s March, a nonprofit group that helped arrange the occasion and different protests supporting girls’s rights. Organizers had been planning a nationwide march for abortion rights earlier than the draft opinion leaked, however they fast-tracked the occasion after the opinion was revealed. Ms. O’Leary Carmona mentioned she hoped the occasions would enable demonstrators to “construct energy, each civically and electorally.”
“People are mobilizing as a result of they see that the hour is later than we thought,” she mentioned.
The marches befell after the publication this month of the draft opinion, which confirmed that the Supreme Court docket appeared poised to overturn Roe, the landmark 1973 choice that assured the best to abortion. The court docket’s ruling just isn’t anticipated till June or early July.
With the midterm elections months away, President Biden and congressional Democrats are hoping to make use of the problem to energise voters. Democratic senators failed on Wednesday to advance laws to ensure abortion rights nationwide within the face of opposition from Republicans and one Democrat, Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia.
In Washington, Elizabeth Moser, 34, a communications specialist from Burke, Va., mentioned she hoped the marches would impress voters and politicians.
Though she had been planning to vote within the midterms, she mentioned she was now contemplating driving individuals to the polls and texting her pals to encourage them to attend different rallies in help of abortion rights.
“I’m out right here attempting to construct a motion,” mentioned Ms. Moser, who wore a pink bandanna and held up an indication that learn, “I can’t go quietly again to the Nineteen Fifties.”
In Brooklyn, hundreds of abortion rights supporters gathered in Cadman Plaza Park earlier than marching to Foley Sq. in Decrease Manhattan. Volunteers supplied snacks and indicators with phrases like “Stand With Black Girls.”
For some, protesting the draft opinion was not nearly defending the best to abortion.
Lillian Penafiel, 35, and her spouse, Emi Penafiel, 44, nervous about what a ruling would imply for marriage equality, L.G.B.T.Q. rights and voting rights.
“They’ve been very clear, particularly what was written up, that our rights are going to be threatened as properly, too, in order that’s why we’re nervous,” Emi Penafiel mentioned. “They’re coming in spite of everything of it.”
Madeleine Ngo reported from Washington, and Lola Fadulu from New York.
Supply: NY Times