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The ‘Bans Off Our Our bodies’ day of motion sees nationwide marches for reproductive rights

May 15, 2022

Because the nation awaits a ultimate determination from the USA Supreme Court docket on the way forward for Roe v. Wade, reproductive justice activists and group members rallied collectively in a number of nationwide marches to name for bodily autonomy.

The teams organized in response to a leaked draft opinion on a present Mississippi abortion legislation case being heard by the Supreme Court docket. As written, the opinion would successfully overturn the protections established by the 1973 Roe v. Wade determination. Reproductive justice advocates say that horrifying reversal would threaten the lives of many pregnant individuals, and will have lasting repercussions on the final proper to privateness.

Folks took to the streets on Saturday to protest this potential future. The Might 14 Bans Off Our Our bodies Day of Motion was organized by Deliberate Parenthood and people behind the annual Girls’s March.

SEE ALSO: Abortion funds and reproductive justice networks want our assist

Teams gathered across the nation, together with a march exterior of the Supreme Court docket constructing and across the nation’s capital. Organizers anticipated round 17,000 protesters in Washington, D.C., alone, and lots of extra joined in assist on-line. Deliberate Parenthood additionally requested people to signal the Bans Off Our Our bodies petition.

Activists unfurl an enormous register entrance of the Washington Monument. Credit score: Leigh Vogel / Getty Photographs for Girls’s March

A young child sits on the shoulders of an adult. They are holding two small signs that read "Keep abortion legal".

A various group of individuals gathered exterior Metropolis Corridor in Houston, Texas. Credit score: Mark Felix / AFP by way of Getty Picture

A sign held above a crowd that reads "Being forced to war a mask goes against rights? Imagine being forced to gestate and give birth".

Held excessive. Credit score: Michael Siluk / UCG / Common Photographs Group by way of Getty Picture

A large sign plays off of the "Don't Mess with Texas" motto, which reads "Don't mess with women".

Texans already face a number of the strictest abortion legal guidelines within the nation. Credit score: Mark Felix / AFP

An older woman holds a sign reading "My mother already marched this march! This grandma is pissed!"

The marches present the historical past of cross-generational reproductive activism. Credit score: Anna Moneymaker / Getty Photographs

The Supreme Court docket’s impending determination may impression two important privateness precedents on the heart of abortion rights. The primary of which is the Roe determination, which decided that restrictive state abortion legal guidelines had been unconstitutional and opened up a wave of reproductive justice activism, and the second is the 1992 Deliberate Parenthood v. Casey case, which reaffirmed Roe’s protections towards state abortion bans.

Earlier than the nationwide day of motion, 160 celebrities signed onto a Might 13 Deliberate Parenthood doc condemning the leaked determination and demanding authorities leaders step in to guard reproductive rights.

The Supreme Court docket justices met for the primary time because the leak, which critics say is a breach of the general public’s belief within the court docket itself, on Might 12. A ultimate determination will not be launched till nearer to the top of the court docket’s session in June or July. On Might 11, the Senate failed in its try to put down abortion entry as federal legislation after a Republican filibuster.