SAN FRANCISCO — Walking among thousands who marched through downtown Saturday morning, Nancy Calibjo couldn’t believe she still needs to protest for abortion rights.
Calibjo was among a procession that stretched nearly two blocks near the city’s Civic Center plaza, one of dozens of gatherings across the Bay Area and country sparked by the Supreme Court’s leaked draft ruling that would overturn Roe v. Wade, the case that nearly 50 years ago guaranteed a woman’s right to abortion.
The 72-year-old, frustrated and exasperated by the possible end to federal abortion protections, remembers being 18 years old and making the hardest decision of her life not to terminate a surprise pregnancy, delaying her dreams for college until her 40s so she could raise a child instead.
“It was a blessing to have my daughter, but she knows that decision to have her was one that I didn’t really have,” said Calibjo, who gave birth just years before the court’s landmark decision in 1973. “But I had a supportive family and not everyone does — I want everyone to have that choice.”
The March for Reproductive Justice in San Francisco was one of hundreds of events across the country that included Bay Area marches in San Jose, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Oakland, Pacifica and Brentwood and major gatherings in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and in Washington, D.C., where protesters marched from the Washington Monument to the Supreme Court.
Women’s rights advocates across the country have reacted with fury to a leaked draft of the Supreme Court’s vote to overturn Roe v. Wade when it issues a highly anticipated decision next month on a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks. About half the country’s states have indicated they would fully ban the practice if the court’s decision becomes final.
The marchers in San Francisco held signs that read “the Supreme Court has failed the people” and “get your laws off my body!” as most onlookers cheered and a small number of counter-demonstrators used megaphones to declare abortion is murder.
Kaci Freeman, a 14-year-old Los Altos resident, made a sign with the image of a coat hanger and the phrase “We’re not going back to this.” The inspiration came from learning about the history of unsafe abortions carried out by women in places where the practice is illegal, she said.
“I don’t want to grow up in a country where I don’t have ownership over my own body,” Kaci said.
Lawmakers in California have begun working to cement the state’s “abortion sanctuary” status, with Gov. Gavin Newsom including in a budget proposal this week $125 million to strengthen abortion access and separately backing legislation to subsidize abortions for women who can’t afford them.
The governor tweeted after the decision leaked that the state would “fight like hell” to protect abortion rights, while Bay Area leaders began holding town halls with Planned Parenthood officials to explore the region’s next steps. Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, with 36 clinics from the Bay Area to Bakersfield, is welcoming dozens of women seeking abortions from Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia and Texas where restrictions are already in place.
Political experts believe the leaked ruling could trigger a blue wave in California and other states in the midterm elections with Democrats at risk of losing their control of Congress.
“There’s definitely some galvanization around the issue politically — people seem very fired up,” said Ivy Cargile, a political science professor at Cal State Bakersfield, noting that large rallies around abortion rights had begun taking place even in the more conservative Central Valley. “Maybe now more people are going to pay attention to politics and will come out to vote.”
In January, thousands of anti-abortion advocates arrived in San Francisco in buses from other parts of California to hold an annual anti-abortion rally in the city. Meanwhile, protests at Planned Parenthood clinics around the region have grown in numbers, prompting city officials in Walnut Creek to create buffer zones that keep the demonstrators away from people entering the facility.
Friends for Life Tri-Valley, a local group that organizes protests at Planned Parenthood locations, said the group would keep up its efforts in California to persuade women seeking abortions to reconsider.
“The best activism is one that presents the truth of science with love, and empowers women to know the life-giving options that are there for them and their babies,” the group’s leadership stated in an email.
Meanwhile, activists in California are calling on the state to strengthen sex education curricula so that young women who become pregnant understand their options. The movement’s goals can’t simply be limited to voting booths, one local activist at Saturday’s rally said.
“It’s not just about voting blue,” said Kristina Lee, a San Francisco resident and organizer with the Movement for Reproductive Justice. “We need to have a movement that is people-led to protect abortion. Democrats have been sitting on their hands… and I don’t trust the Supreme Court to defend my rights, so I have to go out on the streets and demand them myself.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com