Roe V. Wade Protest in DTLA

Hey SoCal. Last Friday, it was announced that the Supreme Court of the U.S. overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the decades long right to abortion. Given this decision, protests cropped up all over Southern California, including on in DTLA’s Pershing Square. Angelenos rallied around multiple speakers to demonstrate their outrage, and protest the loss of womens’ reproductive rights in states all across the country. We sent our photographer, Jason Kentaro, to capture the energy of the protesters.

Please read this excerpt from an article from the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s website on the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the loss of women’s reproductive rights:

With outrageous disregard for women’s equality and bodily autonomy, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to overturn Roe v. Wade, reversing the lower level court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Nine unelected judges, appointed for lifetime terms, should not have the discretion to eviscerate the rights of hundreds of millions of people in the United States. The consequences of the Supreme Court’s decision are dire – we no longer have constitutional protections for our right to control our own bodies! 

Justice Thomas states, “That 50 years have passed since Roe and abortion advocates still cannot coherently articulate the right (or rights) at stake proves the obvious: The right to abortion is ultimately a policy goal in desperate search of a constitutional justification.” We must not stand for this contemptuous treatment of a life-saving healthcare procedure! 

The Dobbs ruling could be used to justify overturning more of our human rights, including the right to contraception (Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965), same-sex marriage (Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015), and laws banning same-sex sexual relations (Lawrence v. Texas in 2003). This is a walkout moment. It is time to hit the streets!  

Fight for your rights, SoCal.

And for more SoCal politics, we suggest viewing Mike Ciriaco‘s video series To Ukraine with Love: