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Millions of women march to demand reproductive rights across the nation on May 14, 2022. Over 300 demonstrations in cities large and small, including Washington D.C. and at the Supreme Court.
These demonstrations result from the leaked draft of an opinion by the conservative Supreme Count signaling its position to overturn Roe v. Wade, a 49 years old decision that guaranteed women constitutional rights to legal abortion.
The women’s march was an unmistakable message that women won’t go back to the 1950s with illegal back-alley abortions that killed many women. Women will organize and vote these misogynistic Republicans out of office. These lawmakers don’t care about the unborn. They have weaponized the fetus and religion to stay in power and have control over others.
It is Republicans who cut programs for poor children like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for 22 million children, tax credits for working families of 5.5 million low-income children, free lunch and breakfast for 280,000 low-income children, child care for 4 million children in 35 states, child protective services for 1.7 million children in 41 states, foster care for 451,000 children in 36 states, child abuse prevention for 640,000 children in 30 states, according to the Center for American Progress.
This is how Republicans care about children by cutting funds for poor children, and giving a $1.9 trillion tax break to the richest people and corporations in the country.
What is happening is so much more than reproductive rights. It is part of the ongoing coup to take over the country by Trump’s supporters and a white evangelical extremist religious movement that wants to force their religious beliefs on everyone.
Trump, who is not religious, promised to appoint pro-life justices to the Supreme Court to overturn Roe. The appointments were a backroom deal between Evangelicals, the Federalist Society, and Trump.
According to Amanpour & Company on PBS, the Federalist Society gave Evangelical preachers a list of judges willing to overturn Roe. The preachers gave the list to Trump and promised him votes and volunteers to nominate justices on that list.
In expectation of Roe v. Wade being overturned, Republican lawmakers passed laws to criminalize abortion, medical professionals, and doctors; remember this when you vote in November. And it doesn’t stop there; some Republicans have said out loud what they plan to do next, criminalize all abortions, birth control, and same-sex marriage.
Alito’s Flawed Reasoning In His Supreme Court Opinion Draft
I will mention only a few flawed reasons but if you want to examine more flawed reasoning by Justice Samuel Alto, click on the link below.
Alito’s opinion relies on “history and tradition” alone to determine our rights. This is a ludicrous standard to rely on a history filled with racism, sexism, and homophobia to decide on our fundamental rights today. This approach merely perpetuates historical inequalities, and puts other rights at risk.
His opinion violates the principle of separation of church and state. The belief that an embryo is a human being and that abortion is murder is a religious view that people of other religions do not share. This decision would impose one religious morality on everyone.
Alito’s opinion is shameless hypocrisy. It overrules decades-old precedents to impose conservative justices’ anti-abortion views because they finally have the votes to do so.
Alito’s judicial opinion was pulled from many sources, including a 17th-century jurist who burned women as witches and considered women property of men, reported in the Washington Post.
BANS OFF ATLANTA PROTEST AT LIBERTY PLAZA
Liberty plaza was filled with thousands of people and overflowed onto the sidewalks. Women were angry and determined to protect their rights from anyone who dared to disrespect and reduce them to their anatomy.
PLANNED PARENTHOOD SE- Vivenne Kerley-de la Cruz, Georgia Campaign Director
Abortions are still safe and legal in Georgia, and the doors for health centers are open. Many had never lived in a time when abortion access wasn’t our right because, for 50 years, abortions have been constitutionally protected health care in the US.
The Supreme Court is preparing to overturn our constitutional rights to abortions. They are out of touch with 80% of Americans and 70% of Georgians who want abortion to be legal but the
If Roe is overturned, 26 states will move to ban abortions, including Georgia. That will leave 36 million women who can become pregnant without abortion access. One in four women will need access to abortion care, and abortion is your right. No court rulings or political figures should interfere with your ability to access abortion.
Get registered to vote and make our voices heard at every local, state, and federal election.
Get involved with reproductive rights and justice organizations like ARC SE, SisterSong, Amplify Georgia, NARAL, Sister Love, URGE, and Spark.
FEMINIST WOMEN’S HEALTH CENTER – Kwajelyn Jackson, Executive Director
“We have been providing compassionate abortion care since 1976, and we have no intentions of stopping,” Jackson said.
They need volunteers to stand in the parking lot between patients and the anti-abortion protesters. Also need volunteers to give a woman a ride to her appointment and money for bus fare for those coming from out of town.
We want everyone to get registered to vote and VOTE. Tell your friends about your abortion story.
ABORTION STORIES
A Black woman said she got an abortion because of health reasons. She had cysts on her ovaries and other health problems and was very sick and threw up water all day. She was at high risk of dying if she had this baby and already had a small child to care for. I am grateful to the feminist health center for helping me pay for the abortion.
A Black, Southern, Socialist, queer, non-binary trans man shared his abortion. He was gang-raped by four men and became pregnant. “My abortion saved my life. Planned Parenthood recognized that I needed help and went above and beyond what they needed to do to get me into a rape crisis center and therapy. There are trans and non-binary people, and abortion access is for everyone,” he said.
URGE United for Reproductive Gender Equity – Emily Cuarenta, Georgia State Organizer
I had my abortion at the Feminist Women’s Health Center, where anti-abortion protesters harass clinics and intimidate patients. I had a beautiful clinic escort to comfort me and get us safely to the clinic. I will share my story until it’s no longer necessary because white supremacists have threatened us to keep our voices silent about our abortions. Abortion is safe, normal, and okay.
I was in my junior year at Mercer University and did not have enough money for an abortion. My boyfriend paid for the abortion, and we are married now. I was the first in my family to graduate from college because that abortion made my life easier.
I live in Macon, so I drove almost 2 hours to Atlanta because there are no abortion providers in Macon. Middle Georgia is riddled with anti-abortion centers that disguise themselves as clinics. Abortion is made inaccessible to low-income people and people living in rural areas. Because of your zip code, gender, or economic status, no one should be denied an abortion; that is a fundamental human right.
AMPLIFY GEORGIA -Yemi Miller-Tonnet, Campaign Manager
I’m an abortion doula, a Black queer Socialist woman. At Amplify Georgia, we work at the local and state levels to protect and expand abortion access in Georgia.
We are hopeful because we believe in our collective power and the future of abortion access.
Our federal courts have failed us. The folks [Republicans] under that Gold Dome are hell-bent on taking our reproductive rights away. But we are in a city that is the birthplace of the Reproductive Justice Movement, and we are part of a long, rich legacy of freedom fighters. No one should fear for their freedom to decide to end their pregnancy. We know that safe abortion can happen at home and in clinics. We will not go back to an ideology that reduces womanhood to anatomy.
The Supreme Court has failed us. This is the same white supremacist Supreme Court that told my ancestors that they were only three-fifths of a person in 1857. White supremacists did not stop our ancestors, and we will not be stopped either.
Abortion is not affordable and is not accessible to everyone who needs it – poor folks, rural folks, LGBTQIA plus folks, immigrants, and refugees are suffering now from lack of access.
What can you do to help? Tell your communities that abortion is still legal in Georgia. Sign our petition to tell the Atlanta City Council and the Mayor that we want our tax dollars to support abortions. We need our legislators to take us seriously and represent the people in this plaza today.
ATHENS REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE COLLECTIVE – Vanisha Kudumuri, Co-Founder and Policy Chair
In 2019 Georgia passed a six-week abortion ban [sponsored by Ed Setzler (R-Acworth)] before most women even knew that they were pregnant. I was 17 years old, and that was the beginning of my journey in reproductive freedom. My generation refuses to wait silently while our rights are thrown away, and our futures are squandered.
What you can do is VOTE because your rights depend on it. We need more pro-choice Democrats in our state legislature. We need to vote lawmakers out if they don’t protect abortion access [Republcans are passing these abortion bans], vote them out. Donate to local abortion funds. Sign up to drive people to abortion clinics who live in rural areas.
SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW – Agbo Ikor Policy and Advocacy Director
This Supreme Court opinion will lead to increased surveillance, criminalization, and policing of those who choose to end their pregnancy. It will have a disproportionate impact and focus on those most marginalized Black folks, undocumented folks, queer folks, poor folks, trans folks, and sex workers who are already subjected to undue white supremacist state surveillance.
There have been numerous anti-LGBTQ and anti-trans bills introduced across the county, including in Georgia. This fight is for our human right to bodily autonomy, and we refuse to back down from the threats against our bodies.
We envision a world where marginalized people have the autonomy to make decisions about their life, body, sexuality, and reproductive freedom without fear or shame. We will continue the fight, and we will WIN.
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President Biden can sign an Executive Order to protect Reproductive Rights and Voting Rights. It’s not a permanent fix but it will help until we vote in more pro-choice. Democrats. Democrats need 50 votes in the Senate and only have 48 since Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema vote NO on most progressive issues.
Written and photos by Gloria Tatum
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