Abortion rights backers rally in anger over post-Roe future

Washington, May 15 (BNA) Abortion rights advocates who demonstrated at hundreds of rallies and rallies on Saturday expressed their anger that the Supreme Court appears ready to repeal the constitutional right to abortion that has lasted for nearly half a century and their fear of what is happening. It can mean a woman’s reproductive choices.

Angry after a leaked draft opinion suggested the court’s conservative majority would overturn Roe v. Wade’s ruling, activists spoke of the need to mobilize quickly as Republican-led states prepare to enact tougher restrictions, the Associated Press reported.

In the nation’s capital, thousands gathered in rainy weather at the Washington Monument to listen to fiery speeches before marching to the Supreme Court, which was surrounded by two layers of security fences.

The mood was one of anger and defiance, three days after the Senate failed to muster enough votes to legalize Roe v. Wade.

“I can’t believe that at my age, I still had to protest this,” said Samantha Rivers, a 64-year-old federal government employee preparing for an interstate battle over abortion rights.

Half a dozen anti-abortion protesters sent a dissenting message, with Jonathan Darrell shouting into a microphone, “Abortion is not health care, guys, because pregnancy is not a disease.”

Polls show that most Americans want to preserve access to abortion – at least in the early stages of pregnancy – but the Supreme Court appears willing to allow states to have the final say. If that happens, roughly half of the states, mostly in the South and Midwest, are expected to quickly ban abortion.

FKN