Thousands of abortion-rights supporters gathered in hundreds of rallies nationwide Saturday for the first Women’s March demonstrations since President Trump left office.
More than 650 separate events were held as part of the Rally for Abortion Justice, in Manhattan, Albany, and Seneca Falls, NY, and hundreds of other cities.
“I am sick and tired of having to fight over abortion rights,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul told rally-goers in the state capital. “It’s settled law in the nation.”
Hochul said that New York would serve as an abortion “safe harbor” for women who live in states with restrictive abortion laws.
“You come to New York and we’ll take care of you,” she promised. “We’ll let you know that we protect your rights.”
Impassioned advocates in Texas — where President Biden’s Department of Justice is challenging the state’s “heartbeat law,” which effectively bans abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy — gathered early Saturday in Houston and Austin.
“I am embarrassed to be a Texan,” read one hand-lettered sign in the crowd of about 1,000 at the state capitol building in Austin. “Not Ur Uterus, Not Ur Opinion,” proclaimed another.
In Los Angeles, journalist and former California first lady Maria Shriver, attorney Gloria Allred,and actresses Alyssa Milano and Christine Lahti addressed the crowd.
An estimated 2,000 demonstrators attended a rally in Manhattan’s Foley Square, while another group marched across the Brooklyn Bridge.
“Who sent us? Ruth sent us!” they chanted — a shout-out to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a staunch abortion defender while she served on the Supreme Court.
In Manhattan’s Foley Square, about 200 demonstrators attended a 2 p.m. rally.
Erika Germano, a 53-year-old business owner from Manhattan, expressed distress over the Texas law, which empowers citizens to sue abortion practitioners who defy the six-week limit.
“It harkens back to East Germany and World War II with having neighbors snitch on each other and spy on each other,” Germano said.
Jackie Penyak of Bethel, Conn., said she has grappled with the abortion issue.
“I might not personally make that choice, but I really do truly believe people need to stop arguing about it,” Penyak, 63, said. “It’s between you and God.”
The day’s centerpiece event was a march on the Supreme Court building in Washington, DC, where organizers estimated the crowd at 5,000.
The day’s centerpiece event promised to be a march on the Supreme Court building in Washington, DC, where organizers estimated the crowd at 5,000.
A demonstrator wearing a pink-knitted “pussy hat” — the signature headgear of the Women’s March — wielded a sign reading, “If You’re Against Abortion, Don’t Get One,” as she stood on the court’s marble steps.
The nation’s highest court convenes Monday for its first fully in-person session since the coronavirus pandemic sent the justices into virtual hearings.
In December, the court’s nine justices are scheduled to hear arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case out of Mississippi that poses a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade and subsequent Supreme Court decisions that enshrined abortion rights in American law.
The Mississippi case concerns a state law prohibiting abortion after 15 weeks — undercutting the court’s 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which held that states can restrict abortion access after the point of fetal viability but not before.
Advances in medical technology have made viability a moving target, abortion opponents have argued, pointing to cases in which babies born at as few as 21 weeks’ gestation have survived.
The Women’s March advocates aim to push for Senate approval of a bill passed by the House of Representatives last month that would codify Roe v. Wade — and would overturn hundreds of state laws that restrict abortion via mandatory waiting periods, counseling requirements, and required ultrasounds.
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