Nationwide 'Bans Off Our Bodies' Rallies Planned for Saturday

People across the United States are planning to take to the streets on Saturday, May 14 to protest right-wing attacks on abortion rights, including the looming reversal of Roe v. Wade.

Pro-choice groups--including Planned Parenthood organizations, Liberate Abortion, MoveOn, Service Employees International Union, UltraViolet, and Women's March--are putting together marches, rallies, and other events for the "Bans Off Our Bodies" day of action.

A searchable list of events is available at BansOff.org.

In addition to five anchor demonstrations planned in Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington, D.C., more than 200 events are scheduled to "demonstrate the massive support for abortion rights nationwide, and make clear to the public just how serious the threat to those rights is in this moment," according to Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

Senate Republicans and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Wednesday blocked a final vote on the Women's Health Protection Act (WHPA), which would affirm abortion rights at the federal level. Calls for passing the bill have built up since a draft U.S. Supreme Court opinion leaked last week.

As the Center for Reproductive Rights explained:

The rallies are in response to the publishing by Politico of a draft Supreme Court opinion in the center's case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, that would overrule Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey and rule there is no constitutional right to abortion. Such a ruling would mark the first time in history that the U.S. Supreme Court has taken away a fundamental right.
Chief Justice John Roberts has confirmed that the draft was authentic, but that it is not the final opinion of the court. The final opinion is expected before the end of the court's term at the end of June.

If the high court does reverse Roe and Casey, abortion could be banned in over half the country due to "trigger" laws and other legislation, according to the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute.

"Either abortion will be outlawed in your state or your state will become a state that needs to start providing abortions to people who are coming from out of state. So this will have an impact on every single person in this country," Kimberly Inez McGuire, executive director of URGE: Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity, recently toldGlamour.

After the WHPA vote this week, Planned Parenthood Action Fund president Alexis McGill Johnson said that "politicians opposed to abortion rights are not stopping here--they have made it clear that their ultimate goal is to ban abortion nationwide."

"With the Supreme Court planning to overturn Roe v. Wade, we are at a tipping point in the fight to be able to make decisions about our own bodies, lives, and futures," she added. "We will not back down, and we will not forget those who put politics over our health and rights."

As part of Planned Parenthood's #BansOffOurBodies campaign, more than 160 young celebrities signed their names to a full-page New York Times advertisement that ran on Friday to promote the weekend protests. Their message on abortion rights was that "we will not go back--and we will not back down."

Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights, which has held actions throughout the week in response to Justice Samuel Alito's draft opinion, also has dozens of U.S. events planned for Saturday. Protest leaders from the group said Friday that "the end of Roe v. Wade would be one of the most significant reversals of a fundamental human and civil right in this country's history."

"If you care about women and girls... if you refuse to inherit, or pass on, a world that is hurtling backwards," they continued, "get organized and connect with us. Spread the word to friends, family, and other networks. NOW is the time to rise up, together, as if our lives depend upon it--for, in fact, they do."