WASHINGTON -- More than 1,000 abortion-rights demonstrators, chanting loudly and waving placards, gathered near the Supreme Court building Saturday for a second day of protests after the court's overturning of Roe v. Wade, adding their voices to renewed outpourings of emotion nationwide over the historic ruling.
By late Saturday morning, protesters had massed on First Street NE, between the Capitol and Supreme Court, in a gathering that was noisy but peaceful -- although some abortion-rights advocates engaged in angry exchanges with anti-abortion activists, who appeared in much smaller numbers.
"Not your uterus, not your choice," they chanted, as a group formed a semicircle in front of the court building and girls and adults stepped forward. One took the megaphone and led the crowd in defiant chants about the ruling.
"I Dissent," read one placard. Others demanded a "separation of church and state" and called for Congress to "codify Roe." At one point, a man rode a bicycle through the assembly, disrupting a speech while playing religious music and displaying a "JESUS SAVES" sign. Protesters shouted back at him, "Abort the court!"
U.S. Capitol Police said late in the afternoon that two people had been arrested. An officer said he understood the reported conduct was "destruction of government property," but cautioned that he did not know what the formal charge eventually would be.
On First Street, 11-year-old Penelope Hall of Blacksburg, Va., took the megaphone in front of the Supreme Court to deliver her message: "The decision they made doesn't affect them," she said. "But it affects me and my friends and my family."
Other protesters cheered loudly as she handed the megaphone to the next speaker. With her father, Nathan Hall, standing next to her, Penelope said she wanted to tell the court that abortion was her right. Nathan Hall, 44, said he was "proud of her confidence and that she was able to articulate her voice. One of her first dream jobs was to be on the Supreme Court to protect women's rights."
D.C. police said they had activated the full department -- placing officers on standby in case of violence or vandalism -- through the weekend. On Friday, dozens of police officers surveyed the scene as a peaceful but animated crowd gathered outside the court less than two hours after the decision was announced. Security fencing ringed the court, and officers with long guns watched the crowd from the roof.
On Friday, thousands of abortion-rights supporters gathered in downtown Washington to assail the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, in which a majority of the justices held that the Constitution does not guarantee the right to an abortion. Other marches to protest the decision unfolded in New York, Chicago, Nashville, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities. After the leak of a draft of the opinion last month, few were surprised. But many were still in shock.
An abortion-rights activist who had been atop the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge since Friday morning came down Saturday afternoon, according to D.C. police. He had been on top of the bridge for more than 24 hours.
As Saturday morning wore on, Kate Ireland of Chevy Chase, Md., bounced her 2-year old daughter, Eleanor, on her lap as the crowd chanted, "My body, my choice!"
"Can you say it?" Ireland, 40, asked her daughter, as Eleanor looked around, eyes wide. They came with Kate's sister, Elizabeth McNamee, 33, of the District, who is queer. Both sisters are also concerned about what other rights would be rolled back next, including same-sex marriage.
On Friday, the scene outside the court in the immediate wake of the Dobbs ruling captured Americans' wildly divergent reactions to a watershed moment in one of the nation's bitterest debates. Anti-abortion activists brimmed with joy at a long-sought legal victory while supporters of abortion rights voiced fury and despair. Saturday brought a similar outpouring.
Anti-abortion activist Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, applauded the court's ruling as he stood outside the building. He likened the justices' decision to the Allies' successful Normandy invasion in the fight against Nazi Germany in World War II, adding that ultimately he wants a federal law banning abortion nationwide.
The ruling "was a victory, but it's like D-Day," Terry said. "Our goal is to get to Berlin. Our mission is to make it illegal to kill a human being from conception until birth in all 50 states."
Carol Foulke, who is old enough to remember World War II, came to First Street from Northern Virginia in a wheelchair being pushed by her daughter. "Social worker for abortion access," her sign read.
It is "very important that as many people who feel as I do to get out here and let the government know we're out here," said Foulke, 93, as protesters, mostly women, approached to have their photos taken with her. "It's going to be harder on the young people because they have lived with Roe v. Wade their whole lives," she said. "They don't know what it's like to not have that."
Caitlynn Sawilski, 19, drove from Dover, Del., with a sign she'd made in 2018 for the anti-gun violence March for Our Lives: "So you're only pro-life when a uterus is involved?"
The other side of the sign said: "This is from four years ago, why am I still using it?"
"It is ridiculous that I have a sign that applies to trying to fight for gun safety and reproductive rights," Sawilski said.
Tim Clement of Oxnard, Calif., arrived in D.C. on Wednesday, anticipating the ruling overturning Roe. He said he was here to celebrate and, like Terry, to prepare for next steps. "Now the fight really begins," said Clement, 49, a teacher and chaplain. "It's about going forward, not backward. The laws of abortion need to change across the country. It's a fight to change people's minds."
Mary Tretola-Johnson, 46, held a neon-green sign above her head saying she was a rape victim.
She said she was sexually abused for more than a year when she was a teenager. Although she did not get pregnant, she said, she thinks about what might have happened -- and what might happen to others.
"There will be girls, women, who are impregnated by sexual assault that will not be given a choice, and they have to carry that baby to term. It's a lifetime of victimization that no man should ever have a voice in."
Elsewhere in the country, hundreds gathered in Willard Park next door to Cleveland City Hall on Saturday, coming from as far as Akron, an hour away, and carrying homemade signs that captured their unambiguous anger and unwillingness to accept Friday's Supreme Court decision.
"I refuse to live in a country like this, and I'm not leaving," read one.
"Guns have more rights than my uterus," read another.
As speakers took the mic to deliver fiery speeches, the crowd chanted, "Never surrender! Abortion forever!"
LEGAL OPTIONS
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden's administration is still exploring legal options to buttress protections for abortion services, but a top spokeswoman signaled that his team sees few or none after what Biden called a "terrible" ruling.
Biden again condemned the decision by the court's conservative majority on Friday to overturn Roe v. Wade, opening the door for states to ban abortions.
"We're going to continue to see what else we can do," Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Saturday. "But I guess what I'm trying to say about the executive actions, is that nothing could make, could fill the hole that this decision has made" other than Congress passing a law, she said.
Biden on Friday announced a pair of specific responses to the ruling: the Department of Health and Human Services would support the availability of abortion pills and ensure insurance coverage of contraceptives, while the Department of Justice signaled it would offer legal support for anyone facing prosecution for crossing state lines to get an abortion.
"The way to look at this -- he did use executive authority, and that matters," Jean-Pierre said. At the same time, she signaled the limited options at Biden's disposal.
"I don't have anything to read out to you specifically on a strategy," she said.
The administration has been coy about whether it will issue any sort of executive order, a presidential power that is often more symbolic than binding.
Biden on Saturday declined to answer questions about court reform, including on whether he favors eliminating the filibuster for abortion -- which would allow a law on it to pass the Senate with 50 votes instead of 60 -- or other measures, like expanding the Supreme Court or pursuing term limits for its justices.
"I think the Supreme Court has made some terrible decisions," he said.
"Jill and I know how painful and devastating the decision is for so many Americans," he said, with first lady Jill Biden at his side. "We're going to take actions to protect women's rights and reproductive health."
Biden warned Friday that executive authority is substantially limited, leaving him few or no options to fill the gaps created by the overturning of Roe v. Wade. He has called on Congress to instead pass a law codifying Roe -- though there aren't sufficient votes for that in the current Congress -- and for voters to elect more Democrats.
"The only way to make that whole again is for congress to act," Jean-Pierre said Saturday.
Biden acknowledged the limits of his powers in an initial reaction Friday, while signaling that Democrats would make abortion rights a campaign theme for midterm elections in November.
"This fall, Roe is on the ballot, personal freedoms are on the ballot, the right to privacy, liberty, equality -- they're all on a ballot," Biden said.
Biden has directed the Department of Health and Human Services to make sure that mifepristone, an abortion drug, can be prescribed by telehealth and through pharmacies, and to make sure insurers don't stop covering contraceptives, including emergency contraceptives, an official familiar with the process said Friday.
The Department of Justice will support the right to travel, and look to intervene in cases on behalf of people facing legal action for traveling to receive an abortion, the official said.
ARKANSAS SUPPORT
In Arkansas, the legislature is controlled by Republicans who have supported dozens of abortion bans and restrictions in recent years. Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson also has supported bans on abortion with some exceptions. He's term-limited and leaves office in January. Republican nominee Sarah Sanders, former press secretary to former President Donald Trump, is widely favored in the November election to succeed him.
Arkansas already had a law banning most abortions 20 weeks into a woman's pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. The state has several other bans that have been struck down or blocked by courts in recent years, including an outright abortion ban enacted last year that doesn't include rape or incest exceptions. That ban has been blocked by a federal judge, and the state has appealed.
Arkansas has a law it enacted in 2019 that bans nearly all abortions now that Roe is overturned. That ban, along with the outright ban that's been blocked by a federal judge, only allows exceptions to protect the life of the mother in a medical emergency.
Hours after Friday's ruling, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge signed certification that Roe had been overturned. That certification allows the state's "trigger ban" to take effect immediately. The only exception in that ban is to protect the life of the mother in a medical emergency. The Legislature isn't scheduled to meet until January, but Hutchinson is considering calling a special session to take up tax relief proposals. The Republican governor said Friday that he does not plan on asking lawmakers to consider adding rape and incest exceptions to the state's ban.
Information for this article was contributed by Ellie Silverman, Joe Heim, Daniel Wu, Paul Duggan, Andrea Simakis in Cleveland and Omari Daniels of The Washington Post; Josh Wingrove and Kate Queram of Bloomberg News (TNS) and staff members of The Associated Press.
Gallery: United States, post-Roe, day 2
