Thomas Breen photo
At Friday's protest downtown.
Hundreds of abortion rights protesters filled the federal courthouse steps downtown to decry the U.S. Supreme Court’s “outrageous” and “unacceptable” overturning of Roe v. Wade.
That rally took place Friday afternoon on the steps and sidewalk outside of 141 Church St.
Organized by a coalition of social justice activists and faith leaders called the New Haven Reproductive Justice Mobilization, the protest slammed the top court’s 6 – 3 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the 50-year-old precedent set in Roe that established a constitutional right to abortion. (Click here for an“explainer” about the ruling.)
Kica Matos.
“The court has stripped away the freedom and agency of millions, especially Black, brown and indigenous women, girls, LGBT, and gender-nonconforming people,” said local immigrant rights activist Kica Matos, who emceed Friday’s protest.
“The court has so brazenly chosen to set the clock back in this, the 21st Century. … This ruling is about power. It is about control. And it is about taking away our freedoms. To this ruling, I say: ‘Hell, no! We will not go back!’ ”
Speaker after speaker at Friday’s protest framed abortion access as critical for women’s reproductive healthcare, and as combatable with a host of different faith traditions.
Pastor Vicki Flippin.
“Many of us believe in the moral agency of God’s children,” said First & Summerfield United Methodist Church Pastor Vicki Flippin. “I believe that God gave us wisdom. I believe that God entrusted us with these awesome lives and these awesome bodies. I believe that God gave us the capacity to make our own choice and decisions about our bodies.”
May Ye.
“Repealing Roe does not mean that abortion ends,” rabbi-in-training May Ye of the local Jewish havurah Mending Minyan said. “Pregnant people will always need abortion.”
Tenaya Taylor.
Nonprofit Accountability Group Tenaya Taylor said that she does not plan on having children. “But you’ve got to give people that choice!”
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal cautioned the protesters that Connecticut residents are not immune to the anti-abortion “extremist path” taken by the nation’s top court, even though abortion access is currently enshrined in state law.
That’s because U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he will lead a “national ban on abortion” if Republicans take back control of the federal legislature’s upper chamber, Blumenthal said. That would “destroy our safe haven here in Connecticut.”
“We need more pro-choice senators so we can abolish the filibuster and approve the Women’s Health Protection Act,” he said.
“These judges in their robes are really politicians masquerading as supposedly objective justices,” he concluded, “and we need reform.”
Click on the video below to watch parts of Friday’s protest.