Over 60 people gathered in front of the Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse on Tuesday, May 3 to protest the United States Supreme Court’s impending decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“This is a fight that our grandmothers fought and this is not a fight that I ever thought that I would have to fight again,” said Sheila Bates of the Long Beach chapter of Black Lives Matter.
According to a leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court that was published by Politico, the majority of Supreme Court justices will vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, a landmark case that ensured a woman’s right to an abortion in 1973.
As reported by Politico, the ruling will not be official until the decision is published, which is expected to happen in the next two months.
If the Supreme Court’s current decision is finalized, each state will have the power to decide whether abortion will be legal for its residents.
Multiple protesters held signs that included clothing hangers, alongside written statements like “Never Again,” “We Aren’t Going Back” and “No More Wire Hangers Ever,” referring to the historical use of women using clothing hangers to perform dangerous at-home abortions when abortion was not legal or accessible in many states.
“It’s so incredibly upsetting that we’re still having to fight on this issue when we know that before Roe existed that hundreds of thousands of girls and women ended up in septic wards, people died from illegal abortions,” said Dana Cloud of the Tempest Collective. “Women are going to seek control over their futures no matter what.”
According to a 2018 report published by the National Library of Medicine, around 68,000 women across the globe die each year from illegal, unsafe abortions.
Abigail Mejia, a representative of State Senator Lena Gonzalez, read a statement by Gonzalez to the crowd.
“I’m deeply disappointed and horrified to see the nation moving backwards as it relates to reproductive rights,” Gonzalez’s statement read. “Our nation should support everyone’s dignity and ability to determine their own futures. Denying access to abortion care means denying reproductive freedom and it doesn’t align with our nation’s values.”
According to data from a survey conducted in April 2021 by Pew Research Center, 59% of adults in the US think abortion should be legal in all or most cases and 39% think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.
Gonzalez brought Senate Bill 245, the Abortion Accessibility Act, to the state legislature to limit out-of-pocket costs for abortions. The bill was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom on March 22.
“I am here today because I’m mad as hell, I’m shaking, I’m so mad,” said Jaqui Viale of Long Beach Resister Sisters. “Because if you have a daughter today, […] if you have a niece, a granddaughter, a neighbor, they are going to grow up in a world today where they do not have control over whether they give birth […] The government will have control of their will.”
