July 9 (UPI) — Hundreds of protesters with the Women’s March group rallied outside of the White House on Saturday to pressure President Joe Biden to take executive action to protect abortion rights.
Protesters have been gathering nationwide since May when a draft Supreme Court opinion was leaked to Politico ahead of the high court’s decision to overturn the landmark ruling Roe vs. Wade, which had constitutionally protected the right to an abortion.
Many states previously instituted so-called “trigger bans” that went into effect with the Supreme Court ruling as others have moved quickly in the aftermath to criminalize abortions to various degrees.
Rachel O’Leary Carmona, the executive director of Women’s March, told protesters Saturday that the march was a continuation of a “summer of rage,” WTOP reported.
Carmona told the crowd that Biden is limited in his executive authority supporting the right to an abortion but that she wants him to “push his authority to the limit.”
“The purpose of the action is to encourage President Biden to continue to take executive action, to protect abortion rights, and to use the bully pulpit to move the party to do the same thing,” Carmona told WTOP.
In Dallas, dozens of abortion rights protesters could be seen gathering in Main Street Garden Park for the Dallas Reproductive Liberation March amid temperatures above 100 degrees as organizations helped people register to vote, according to investigative journalist Steven Monacelli.
“Our country is full of fascists and they’re not backing down. So we need to get comfortable with doing things that will make us uncomfortable,” one protester told the crowd in Dallas.
Hundreds of protesters also marched through downtown Wichita, Kansas, on Saturday with signs bearing the message “Vote No” in regard to a question on a ballot asking residents of the state whether to give the state legislative control over abortion laws, the Wichita Eagle’s Travis Heying reported.
In one image shared to Twitter by Heying, a woman could be seen holding a clothing hanger in her hand in an apparent message that women will continue to seek abortions illegally even if they are criminalized.
The marches came just a day after Biden signed an executive order protecting access to reproductive health care services and told voters to elect lawmakers who will codify Roe vs. Wade into federal law.
