Thousands rally for abortion rights in D.C., nationwide

WASHINGTON – 1000’s of abortion rights proponents turned out in Washington, D.C. Saturday, and throughout the U.S., to protest the Supreme Court docket’s resolution earlier this 12 months to overturn Roe v. Wade.

“I am out right here right this moment as a result of I had an abortion, and I used to be in a position to do it safely, and I actually consider that each one ladies ought to have entry, identical to how I used to be in a position to have entry safely, securely,” stated Gabrielle Jennings, one of many many attendees at Saturday’s Girls’s Wave Day March in Washington, D.C.

The D.C. protest kicked off with a rally after which a march from Folger Park to the U.S. Capitol grounds. It was considered one of a number of such nationwide rallies organized by the Girls’s March as a part of a “Girls’s Wave” day of motion.

Protesters carried indicators which learn, “We’re by no means coming again,” “Roe is settled regulation,” and “The toughest resolution a girl could make is not yours.”

Two ladies wore costumes from the tv collection “The Handmaid’s Story.”

David Walsh, who wore a pro-Roe shirt, advised CBS Information he was there to assist his spouse and two daughters.

“I believe it is vital that, as an grownup, and particularly an grownup male, to indicate my household that I assist their pursuits, and I consider in what they consider in too,” Walsh stated. “However I believe it is vital for them to see me be an activist for what I consider in, whether or not it is this, or one thing that I personally be ok with. They should see me being an activist as a result of that is how change is made.”

JaPera Stith, who took a three-hour bus experience with a pal to D.C., stated she was additionally on the occasion to indicate assist for ladies’s rights.

“Girls’s rights, it is about their our bodies,” Stith stated. “So they need to have the selection to do what they need with their our bodies, and I do not like how males have a lot say in that call after they cannot get pregnant.”

There have been a small group of counter-protesters on the D.C. occasion. CBS Information witnessed one girl being taken into custody by police, however no particular particulars had been instantly confirmed.

The occasion additionally comes a couple of month earlier than the midterm elections, with the abortion subject anticipated to be excessive on the minds of voters.

Davis Reginald, who attended the march with the healthcare union SEIU 1199, stated that together with ladies’s rights, he was additionally marching for voting rights.

“Voting rights is vital as a result of my ancestors fought for us to have the precise to vote, and I really feel that we must always train that proper as a result of lots of people sacrificed quite a lot of issues for that proper,” Reginald stated.

In the meantime, Zohreh Khayam, initially from Iran, needed to attract consideration to the loss of life of Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old Amini died after being taken into custody by Iran’s colloquially identified “morality police” final month in Tehran for violating the nation’s strict Islamic costume code. The loss of life has sparked weeks of anti-government protests each in Iran and worldwide.

Khayam is asking for solidarity.

“They don’t seem to be uncovered to the potential of making choices for his or her our bodies, for the way in which they appear, for the way in which they costume,” Khayam stated. “And considered one of my hopes for coming right this moment is for the American ladies to current assist to the Iranian individuals by going to the American authorities and asking them to intervene by way of what is occurring on the earth, and by way of the therapy of ladies in Iran.”