Protests across the US in defense of abortion rights

“Motherhood by choice, not by force.” “We will not back down.” The messages have been painted on a green umbrella by Sheryl, a 61-year-old woman. Like tens of thousands of people around USAthis Saturday she has taken to the streets with her husband Charlie and her son Cole, 17 years old, in her case in New York, to join one of the 380 demonstrations, marches and acts of protest convened throughout the country to defend the right to abortion.

It is the first major national show of rejection of what, according to the recent leak of a draft, will be the sdecision of the conservative majority of the Supreme Court that will end with 49 years of precedent of constitutional protection for abortion that established the ‘Roe v Wade’ judgment in 1973 and ratified in 1992 ‘Casey v Planned Parenthood’. If this decision is confirmed, will return regulation to the states of abortion. In at least 26 Republican-controlled states, it will be immediately or quickly outlawed or severely restricted.

“This is one threat, a war. have started a culture war. Now we have american taliban”, assures Sheryl, who regrets the setback and recalls the case of her great-grandmother Dora, a German immigrant who had five children and died trying to have an abortion on her own. She also stresses that the apparent decision of the Supreme does not respond to the feel majority of Americans, a claim supported by the polls. According to the Pew Center and Gallup, between 61 and 78% of respondents express the defense that abortion is legal in all cases or with some limitations.

“Show, donate and vote”

In the streets of New York this Saturday there are “rage”, “outrage” and determination of resistance. “We will never stop fighting”, says Jasmine, a 25-year-old black woman, who acknowledges that although she did not expect a sentence like the one predicted by the Supreme Court, she is not surprised either. And she though she says she is “disheartening”, and affirms that “being a mother should be an option”, also offers a path for the future: “demonstrate, donate to organizations like Planned Parenthood and vote. We make the change,” she says.

It is the same bet that Laila, 21, makes, who, like many protesters consulted in New York, expresses frustration with the performance so far ofThe Democratic Party. “Us we will mobilize in november”, says the young woman in reference to the mid-term legislative electionswhere it is at stake among other things the control of congress, “But it won’t be for the Democrats, it will be for us. I have absolutely no confidence in them.”

“The Democrats are part of the problem, they haven’t done their job, they have only given empty words”, he also says in New York Linda Sassouran acquaintance activist who was one of the organizers of the Women’s March that was held in Washington the day after the inauguration of donald trump. Then the reproductive rights were one of the issues on which the protesters showed the most concern. And Trump’s selection of three Supreme Court justices (Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavannaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett), that next to Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas sign the sentence of the Supreme Court according to the draft, has ended up proving them right.

Privacy and first amendment

Since the filtration there have been peaceful protests in front of the houses of some of those magistrates, as well as against that of the president of the Supreme Court, the conservative John Roberts. These have ioutraged republicans, who ask to ban them. He also took Jen Psaki, until Friday White House spokeswoman, to ensure that the president Joe Biden wants “to respect the people’s privacy”. “Judges must be able to do their jobs without concern for their personal security”, he tweeted.

.@POTUS strongly believes in the Constitutional right to protest. But that should never include violence, threats, or vandalism. Judges perform an incredibly important function in our society, and they must be able to do their jobs without concern for their personal safety.

— Karine Jean-Pierre (@PressSec) May 9, 2022

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For some protesters in New York, the call to respect privacy or to maintain the “civility“, and hypocrite the position of the Republicans. “For years there has been people harassing women who went to a clinic for an abortion, they have been spat on, physically assaulted, blocked… These protests are the first amendment”, defends Jeane Newhouse.

At age 70, this woman considers “alarming” to have to be “doing this again”, in reference to the struggle that he already waged in the 60s and 70s to achieve a right that is now about to be lost. He warns that “it will be worse than before because now they go for everything: contraceptives, ectopic pregnancies, criminalization of women…”. And John, her husband, warns as many experts have that hehe conservative wave will not stop at abortion: “This is only the first step of what the Supreme Court and the Republican Party are going to try to do,” he says. “Then will come the gay marriagethe voting rights…”