'I'm outraged': Thousands support abortion rights protests across the US
Thousands of abortion rights supporters are protesting across the United States today, starting what organisers said would be "a summer of rage" if the US Supreme Court overturns the Roe vs Wade case that legalised abortion nationwide.
Abortion rights activists march on Constitution Avenue to the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, today. Photo: Supplied/ AFP - Jose Luis Magana
Here are some voices from the rallies in New York, Washington DC, Atlanta and Los Angeles:
Gabriela Fraga, 35, held a "pregnant by choice" sign at New York's rally. Fraga, who was born and raised in a Catholic family in Peru, is 32 weeks pregnant and said she has always been very pro-choice.
"I believe in the fundamental right of all people who are able of bearing children to make decisions. That belief has only further solidified going through pregnancy myself," she said.
"I only became pregnant when I became pregnant because I had the conditions - material, emotional, psychological - to allow for a good life for this child that I'm very excited to have."
Jillian Larussa, 27, said the right to abortion should be made into law, rather than resting on the legal precedent set by the decision in the 1973 Roe vs Wade case: "because this is healthcare."
"This isn't the end," she said as she marched over the Brooklyn Bridge. "This is gonna happen for gay marriage, it's gonna happen for contraceptives, so it's important we hit the streets and we fight against it before we lose rights."
Elizabeth Leek, a 75-year-old massage therapist, was holding a sign that read "Grandma says respect women's choices" and wearing a flower crown at the "Bans Off Our Bodies" rally in front of the Washington Monument.
Leek said she almost died from an unsafe abortion when she was 18, before Roe vs Wade. Now she feels "outrage" and is scared for her six grandchildren. She said she is fighting for them to have healthcare and bodily autonomy.
"It breaks my heart," she said of the court's draft opinion. But she still felt buoyed by the crowd of people, old and young, who were out to protest on Saturday.
"It's momentum," she said.
Brita Van Rossum, a 62-year-old landscape designer, had come to the Washington DC protest from her home in the suburbs of Philadelphia.
She said it was her first time protesting specifically for abortion rights.
"I'm outraged," she said. "If you can't choose whether you want to have a baby, if that's not a fundamental right, then I don't know what is."
Patricia Fulton, a 52-year-old graphic designer from the Atlanta suburb of Roswell, said, "I am angry and I'm going to stay angry."
Fulton, who was at the rally across from Georgia's statehouse, said the US Democratic Party needed to be stronger if Roe vs Wade were to be defended.
"There's public outrage, but we need more leadership from those who can do something," Fulton said.
Malcolm DeCesare, 34, an intensive care nurse from New York who was at the rally across from Los Angeles' City Hall, said that, as a healthcare worker, "I understand and believe very strongly that we are only ever able to ban safe abortions.
"By banning abortion, or even proposing to ban abortion, we are relegating a whole population of women to the Dark Ages - we are putting them at great risk," he said.
Shannon Flaherty, a 52-year-old who was studying nursing after years as a homemaker, was attending the Los Angeles protest with her 16-year-old daughter Piper and two of her daughter's friends.
She said she and her own mother "have lived with men making decisions for our bodies and our lives for a long, long time and it's got to end.'"
Piper said the draft decision was a sign that history was moving in reverse.
"It just makes me really angry that people want to control this, especially when there are so many other things that people could be doing to save people's lives like overturning the death penalty or providing free healthcare," she said.
-Reuters
Workers and Labor Groups Stand Up for Abortion Rights
Workers turned out for abortion rights across the country on a national day of action. We need a large, organized labor movement in support of the fight for reproductive justice.
Left Voice May 14, 2022
Today, workers and unions across the country turned out for a national day of action in support of abortion. Representing UFT, HCT, Starbucks Workers United, RWDSU, NYSNA, and others, workers marched in protests across the country carrying signs of reproductive rights and cross-industry solidarity.
We need a large, mass movement of the working class to rise up for the right to free, safe abortion on the demand. These groups of organized workers are just the beginning.
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