RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — A sea of people crowded downtown Richmond Tuesday in a rally sparked by the leaked draft opinion from the United States Supreme Court to reverse Roe v. Wade.
The protest comes fifty years after the landmark ruling in 1973 that protects a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion.
In the crowd of hundreds of people about a block from the state capitol building, one woman said, “We’ve been hearing about Roe being taken away from us for years.” It’s something she fears may happen now.
Protesters chanted, “We will not go back!” and held signs with sayings like my body, my choice and keep abortion safe and legal at the Planned Parenthood rally yesterday. It was held across the street from the federal courthouse on East Main Street.
Virginia doesn’t have laws that would immediately make abortions illegal if the Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. Wade, but new Republican leadership means future restrictions are not out of the question.
Protesters like Shannon Reed are fearful. “I’m happily married and one day in the future I may have children, but that is still my choice and no man gets to tell me if and when I have that choice,” Reed said.
No anti-abortion groups appeared to be at yesterday’s rally, but they were there at an anti-abortion March for Life last week.
Victoria Cobb with The Family Foundation spoke at the March for Life rally last week with Governor Glenn Youngkin in attendance.
“We believe that every life, from the moment of conception, is unique, valuable and worthy of protection,” she told the crowd last month.
Cobb is happy the Supreme Court could get a chance to reverse their decision.
“What we want to see is a return to those common sense things like women having full, informed consent,” she said. “That once a child feels pain, that’s the point in which we say, ‘okay, we’re not going to have an abortion at this point'”.
A spokesperson with the Catholic Diocese of Richmond said the information isn’t the Supreme Court’s official opinion and that they won’t comment.
