Hundreds of abortion rights activists protested in Washington over a federal judge’s ruling in Texas to limit access to the abortion pill. The protesters gathered outside the Supreme Court building, chanting “Judges are not doctors,” and “Keep abortion legal.” The country has been thrown into a legal battle after access to the abortion pill was reduced by the Texas judge, before the Supreme Court intervened at the last minute to temporarily maintain access, leaving its future uncertain.
A former lawyer, Carol Bouchard, expressed her anger at seeing access to the abortion pill threatened almost a year after the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that had guaranteed women access to the procedure for almost half a century. Brittany House, a resident of Washington, talked about how abortion gave her freedom when she had it in 2012, at age 21, and wouldn’t have been able to support a child.
Many septuagenarians were also marching in front of the Supreme Court, outraged to see restrictions piling up in the country, fifty years after having fought for the right to an abortion. An abortion “saved my life,” said Barbara Kraft, who had an abortion in the late 1970s after serious complications during her pregnancy. The rally was briefly interrupted by a small group of anti-abortion protesters proclaiming over a megaphone that “abortion is murder.” Pro-abortion rights protests were also held in Los Angeles and New York.
