Protesters Across the Country March for Abortion
Thousands of people showed up at 660 simultaneous demonstrations held in opposition to Texas' restrictive anti-abortion law.
EntertainmentEntertainmentThousands of people rallied across the country on Saturday, marching in protest of the obscenely restrictive anti-abortion law that recently went into effect in Texas as well as the rising tide against reproductive rights in the United States.
The 660 simultaneous demonstrations constituted one of the largest nationwide Women’s Marches on record, according to Women’s March executive director Rachel O’Leary Carmona—second only to the first Women’s March organized in opposition to then-Pres. Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration, she told Reuters.
One of the largest rallies on Saturday took place in Austin, where crowds of demonstrators marched on the Texas Capitol carrying signs that read “Abort [Gov. Greg] Abbott” and “Come and Take It,” an iconic state slogan, next to a rendering of a uterus, Reuters reports.
One of the other major demonstrations in Washington D.C. saw thousands march right up to the building that houses the Supreme Court. Just last month, the justices denied a request to block the enforcement of Texas’ so-called “heartbeat” law, which not only bans abortion after six weeks, a time before which most women would even know that they’re pregnant, but incentivizes Texas to sue anyone they suspect of providing an abortion with a reward of at least $10,000. On Monday, the justices will take on a case from Mississippi that could potentially lead to them overturning Roe v. Wade, thereby allowing state legislators to limit and ban abortion as they see fit.
“We’re heading in the wrong direction,” Katy Allen, a 67-year-old university researcher from Rochester, New York, told Reuters. “It’s the tyranny of the minority.”
“It’s cruel and it’s sure as hell not Christian,” Kenya Martin of Abortion Care Network added at the Washington march.
Some celebrities were also spotted at Saturday’s marches, including actresses Amy Schumer and Jennifer Lawrence. Now that I’ve gotten that bit of tabloid whatever out of the way, here’s a helpful guide from Jewish Currents on how to give yourself an abortion.