Protests in the US after Supreme Court overturns rights to abortion

(CMR) There have been numerous protests across the United States as abortion rights activists are upset following the overturn of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court last Friday, 24 June.

The Supreme Court's decision to eliminate the nearly 50-year-old federal constitutional right to have an abortion resulted in at least 10 states banning abortion since Friday's ruling. CNN reported that some 26 states have laws indicating they could outlaw or set extreme limits on abortions.

“Old men, stop telling me what to do with my body,” one protester's sign in Washington, DC., read.

“People's bodies are more regulated than guns,” read another protester's sign in Atlanta.

Abortion rights supporter Joseph Little told CNN, “Making people give birth is enslavement. When you tell people that they no longer have a voice in their own personal matters, that's enslavement. It's oppression. And the Bible clearly says that we need to correct oppression.”

CNN reported that the demonstrations for and against the ruling have been largely peaceful, but a few arrests have been reported. In Los Angeles, police intervened Saturday when protesters tried to march onto the US 101 freeway. In New York, at least 20 people were taken into custody with charges pending, police said.

Officials said that at least six people in Greenville, South Carolina, were arrested at a rally Saturday. The rally included people protesting and supporting the Supreme Court ruling. In Washington, DC, two people were arrested Saturday after they were accused of “throwing paint over the fence by the US Supreme Court.”

In Phoenix, the Arizona Department of Public Safety said that about 1,200 people attended an abortion rights rally Saturday. Four people were arrested late in the day after a fence around the House and Senate Plaza was torn down, the agency said.

In Lynchburg, Virginia, police are investigating the vandalism at a pregnancy center. The words, “If abortion ain't safe, you ain't safe,” were spray-painted near the entrance of the Blue Ridge Pregnancy Center, photos from police show.

Some states now have outright bans on abortions, with varying exceptions or no exceptions. They include Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, and Wisconsin. States with abortion bans expected to take effect in the coming days and weeks include Wyoming, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Idaho. In Arizona, abortion providers started canceling appointments immediately after Friday's ruling.