October 2 Abortion Rally - one of 90 in the US - in Response to Texas Case

The Saturday, October 2 abortion rally at the Daley Center led by Planned Parenthood IL Action and Women’s March, was just one of 90 rallies occurring in all 50 states – and just the beginning of the fight to retain abortion rights threatened by a recent Texas case before the U.S. Supreme Court, organizers said afterward.

“The rally and march to Defend Abortion Access on October 2nd was hugely successful, but now the real work begins: fighting for reproductive justice and abortion access for all,” Brenna O’Brien, a host of the event, said afterward in an email.

“We must fight city by city, state by state, to ensure that all people can still access the health care they need. We cannot allow the reality of Texas to become the reality of this country.”

The rally included roughly 30 other partners, including Access Living, Chicago NOW, Chicago Women Take Action, Equality Illinois, Gay Liberation Network, Illinois NOW, Indivisible Illinois, National Council of Jewish Women (Chicago North Shore and South Cook sections), Personal PAC, SEIU HCII, Women Employed, and more.

Subsequent action includes Women2Women Circles led by individual volunteers who recruit five or more friends and family to engage with other women. https://www.mobilize.us/womensmarch/event/368873/?akid=.143189.216t9L

According to the New York Times on October 1, the Supreme Court refused to block a Texas law prohibiting abortions after six weeks of pregnancy – the most restrictive abortion law in the nation – less than a day after it took effect. The vote was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joining the court’s three liberal members in dissent.

Consisting of just one paragraph, the unsigned majority opinion did not rule on the constitutionality of the Texas law. However, it raised the stakes around a Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks that is scheduled to come before the court this fall. Both supporters and opponents of abortion have said the Mississippi case would challenge Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion.

-Suzanne Hanney, from online sources