WASHINGTON — Seventeen members of Congress – including Democratic Reps. Cori Bush (Mo.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (Minn.) – were among dozens of abortion rights protesters arrested Tuesday outside the Supreme Court in a rally demanding immediate action to protect abortion following the court’s decision last month to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Thirty-five people were arrested for crowding, obstructing or incommoding, a D.C. code often cited when arresting protesters during peaceful, planned and coordinated actions of civil disobedience such as the demonstration on Tuesday. Those arrested were ticketed and released on-site, as is standard practice during events such as this, said Capitol Police spokesman Tim Barber.
Among those arrested were members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus and included Assistant House Speaker Katherine Clark (Mass.) and Reps. Bush, Omar, Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Barbara Lee (Calif.), Jackie Speier (Calif.) and Carolyn Maloney (N.Y.), according to their offices.
In the weeks following the Supreme Court’s decision, confusion surrounding new abortion-related laws has led to patients being denied much-needed maternal health care.
At the time of the decision to overturn Roe, 13 states had “trigger bans,” designed to take effect to prohibit abortion within 30 days of the ruling. At least eight states banned the procedure the day the ruling was released.
Now, common complications, including incomplete miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies, have now been scrutinized, delayed and even denied, according to the accounts of doctors in multiple states where new laws have gone into effect.
The abortion rights protesters on Tuesday marched from the U.S. Capitol to the street in front of the Supreme Court, holding a large orange banner that reads, “Our Bodies. Our Courts. Our Democracy,” according to a live stream of the protest from the Center for Popular Democracy Action, a collective of liberal groups.
Once there, they remained in the street, despite warnings from authorities to disperse or risk arrest. Some sat in the street as the group chanted, “We won’t go back!”
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
