May 4, 2022

“Back to the Dark Ages of Women’s Health”: Protesters Gather in DC to Rally Behind Roe

Protesters decry leaked draft of Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. WadeIsabela Dias

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For the second day in a row, demonstrators gathered in Washington, DC,  on Tuesday to protest a leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade the landmark decision that established the constitutional right to abortion.

Over chants of “pro-life is a lie, they don’t care if people die” and “where’s Joe?,” the large crowd stood in front of the steps of the Supreme Court building holding signs that read “keep your politics out of my uterus” and “bans off our bodies.”

“I am here because I am angry and I am here because the United States Congress can change all of this,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, one of several lawmakers who attended the protest, told the crowd. “I have seen the world where abortion is illegal and we’re not going back. Not ever!” Warren continued, warning that the Supreme Court’s draft opinion would overwhelmingly burden the poor, working mothers, and young victims of abuse and rape—not wealthy women. 

Teal Quinn, who works at an animation study, drove with their 11-year-old child from Maryland after they insisted on taking part in their first protest. “I just want them to have the same rights I have,” Quinn said. “I trust women to make their own decisions and they ought to have the freedom to do that.”

At 69, Mickey Goldberg also came from Maryland with her husband to attend the rally. 

A second-year medical student at Howard University said he felt angry after reading the news about the draft decision.

Several protesters stressed that overturning Roe would not lead to a total ban on abortions, only on safe abortions. Others expressed their discontent towards the justices with signs saying “abort the Court” and “the people have lost all confidence in SCOTUS.”

Constanza Guarino, 27, stopped by the rally in DC on her way back to New York after a workday. “I think this is a pretty monumental moment,” she said. “I am a strong believer that people should be able to decide what is best for themselves and no one should be forced into carrying a pregnancy.”

For Kathy Doan, a 59-year-old Christian, abortion is an issue of justice. “I think the assumption is that Christians don’t support women’s right to choose, but many like myself do,” she said. “If you care about women and children, abortion should be legal and safe.” Outlawing abortion, she added, “basically turns a woman’s uterus into a crime scene. Is that what we want?”  

Pro-choice rally outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday, May 3. 

Constanza Guarino, 27, stopped by the rally in DC on her way back to New York.

Teal Quinn drove with their 11-year-old child from Maryland. 

 
Photos: Isabela Dias

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

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