SALT LAKE CITY, May 3, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — Hundreds of Utahns took to the streets Tuesday evening to protest the Supreme Court’s intentions to overturn abortion protections ensured in Roe v. Wade.
Protesters gathered shortly after 5 p.m. at the Utah Capitol, marched south down Main Street to the Church Office Building on North Temple and then along State Street to the Salt Lake City-County Building.
The crowd chanted “my body, my choice,” “separate church and state,” and “our streets” as they occupied roadways between the government buildings.
“We have to make people pay attention,” Mikah (who declined to give his last name), of Taylorsville, told Gephardt Daily. “And the way to do that is to be as loud as possible, to be as inconvenient as possible, and to be as loving as possible.”
In the draft opinion, reported by Politico on Monday night, Justice Samuel Alito was joined by at least four other justices in the decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade’s holding of a federal constitutional right to abortion and Planned Parenthood vs. Casey, which largely maintained that right.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Alito writes in the document. “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
A protester, who asked to be identified as Ali, told Gephardt Daily she was upset but not surprised by the draft opinion.
“I kind of expected it,” she said. “It feels somewhat hopeless. I’m ticked enough to be out here.”
The downtown Salt Lake City march was one of several protests nationwide organized by Women’s March, a women-led advocacy group “committed to dismantling systems of oppression,” according to its website.
“This is a worst-case-scenario come to life,” Rachel O’Leary Carmona, executive director of Women’s March, said in a news release. “If and when this decision takes effect, the consequences will be unbearable — and for many women, lethal. That is no exaggeration. But it’s also no exaggeration to say that women will fight back like we always have. We won’t take this lying down.”
The group called for protests at federal courthouses, federal buildings, town halls and town squares across the nation at 5 p.m. local time.
“We’re showing up for abortion rights, saying bans off our bodies, and demanding that elected officials take action before the [Supreme] Court gets the chance to overturn abortion,” Carmona said.
Mikah, a transgender man, said he fears overturning abortion protections could lead to other bodily autonomy and privacy issues being at risk.
“If they can attack our healthcare, they can use that lack of bodily autonomy to attack transgender rights, transitioning, privacy, marriage,” he said. “It opens the door to make things a lot worse for everybody.”
Another protest is scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday at the Utah Capitol.
Were there no pro life people on the streets? It is sad that people are killing their own children. I am sorry for their loss.