“Judges are not doctors”, “Abortion must remain legal!”: Several hundred people demonstrated on Saturday in Washington for the right to abortion, which was again questioned in the USA this week.
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The country was plunged into a complex legal battle over the abortion pill. Access was finally temporarily upheld by the Supreme Court on Friday, but it remains a long-term threat.
“When does it stop?” lamented Carol Bouchard on Saturday in front of the white marble building that houses the American legal temple.
This 61-year-old former lawyer says she is “very angry” that access to this stamp is under threat almost a year after the Supreme Court overturned constitutional protections for abortions in the country. This decision led to abortion bans in fifteen states.
On this sunny afternoon, Washington resident Brittany House takes the stage and talks about her abortion in 2012 when she was just out of college.
“The abortion set me free,” the young woman admits, affirming that at 21 she “would not have been able to take care of this child”.
Many 70-year-olds are also marching in front of the Supreme Court, outraged that the country’s restrictions are linked, fifty years after they fought for abortion rights.
Abortion “saved my life,” says Barbara Kraft, who had an abortion in the late 1970s after serious complications during her pregnancy.
“I really believe women should have the right to make that choice for themselves.”
Illustrating the tensions running through American society, the rally was briefly interrupted by a small group of anti-abortion activists who used a megaphone to announce that “abortion is murder.”
Pro-abortion protests also took place in Los Angeles and New York.