Protests are being held across the country in response to the leaked draft opinion in which the U.S. Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.
New Yorkers showed up by the thousands to rally for abortion rights outside the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse at 5 p.m. yesterday.
The rally was one of several held across the country in response to a United States Supreme Court draft opinion that was leaked and published by POLITICO Monday. The opinion shows that a majority of justices voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1992 decision that protects the right to abortion in all 50 states.
Speakers addressed the crowd for hours before leading a march down Centre Street. The crowd, mostly dressed in green to symbolize the fight for abortion rights, shouted “No justice! No peace!” and “When Women’s rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up! fight back!” through Foley Square and onto barricaded roads. The crowd of students, adults and children held up signs with messages such as “Against abortion? Have a vasectomy.” and “Forced birth is fascism.”
Protester Brooke Luchman said she attended the rally to protect her reproductive rights.
“My mom fought for women’s rights in the 1980s and it’s just shocking that we’re back here again so many years later,” she said.
The Guttmacher Institute, a pro-choice research group, predicts that 26 states are “certain or likely” to ban abortions if Roe v. Wade is overturned. The leaked draft opinion comes after months of attacks on abortion rights in states such as Texas and Oklahoma.
Luchman is from Florida, where abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy were banned in April.
“If they overturn Roe v. Wade, automatically they would probably ban abortions in Florida,” Luchman said. “I probably would be fortunate enough to be able to travel if, God forbid, I had to get an abortion, but I know many people are not as fortunate.”
Abortion restrictions and bans hit people of color and low-income people the hardest, according to New York Attorney General Leticia “Tish” James, who spoke at the rally.
“Who will be hurt the most, is people who look like me, poor people and people of color who don’t have funds to travel from state to state to state,” James said. “But I want individuals to know, in those red, deep red states, that New York is here for you as well.”
Similar protests in support of Roe v. Wade took place at Washington Square Park and across the country last night. The court is likely to make a final decision in the next two months, according to POLITICO.
Santana Vallejos was an ultra-feminist, humanitarian, socialist and an unpublished writer of prose.
Santana E. Vallejos, a 1997-1999 undergraduate student at Eugene Lang College, The New School for Social Research; died in December 2019 of liver failure and stage 4 breast cancer. Santana was 41 years of age.