WASHINGTON DC – “We will fight back.” Under this message, thousands of defenders of abortion in the United States demonstrated this Sunday on the 50th anniversary of “Roe v. Wade”, the ruling that allowed it to be legalized half a century ago but which was repealed last June by the Supreme Court.
Dozens of cities embraced the “Bigger than Roe” movement with mobilizations in support of abortion rights organized by the Women’s March, whose main demonstration took place in Madison, Wisconsin.
The US capital, Washington, received people from different states and culminated at the gates of the Supreme Court, but not before passing through the surroundings of the White House.
This was the case of Sharon, a 44-year-old woman from Virginia, who went to request a legal abortion at the federal level: “It is a personal decision, no matter what the reason, it is her decision and it is private,” she explained to EFE.
Sharon expressed his concern at the annual March for Life protest that was also held this Friday in the capital to defend the abolition of abortion. People close to her have had difficulty accessing abortion services, and some of her friends “are terrified” that they might become pregnant after their contraception failed, among other reasons.
The march was marred by some altercations with opponents of abortion. The Police intervened to handcuff and separate one of them, after the cries and posters of the protesters managed to cover up and reduce the cries of the anti-abortionists.
“Pro-life is a lie, they don’t care if people die” was one of the chants used to respond to the anti-abortion group’s “Abortion is a crime” that the march encountered when it reached the Supreme Court.
Many young people attended the rally, like Maria, 23, from Alabama, who is concerned that “if things don’t start to change,” it will continue to “regress” on women’s rights.
“People joke that this is like ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ but I’m really worried that this is going to get too serious too soon,” she added.
Sena, 19, of Romanian origin, came to the rally to prevent women from experiencing the same thing as her grandmother in Romania, who had no access to abortion and was forced to turn to a doctor friend for an abortion. illegal, in which he almost lost his life.
“Making abortion illegal does not stop it, it only makes it unsafe,” he claimed to EFE.
Indiana becomes the first state to restrict abortion after the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 ruling, known as “Roe v. Wade.” Here are the details of the new law.
Another 18-year-old from New Jersey, Catherine, who was rebuked by an anti-abortion woman, alluded to other problems in the country: “How can we trust the government to protect these women and have their children by helping them financially if Can’t we do it in shelters, where there are cases of abuse and rape?”
Another leading song of the demonstration was that of “Protect black women.” “As a black woman, I have definitely felt that my rights have been violated several times,” Catherine told EFE, who thinks that “many people tend not to believe black women.”
The Women’s March protests began in 2017, the day after former Republican President Donald Trump (2017-2021) took office, to protest misogyny and advocate for civil and reproductive rights.
Since then, the Women’s March movement has gone from demonstrating on broad feminist causes to focusing on the fight for access to abortion, whose protection now depends on each state, after the Supreme Court repealed that right at the federal level.