July 4, 2022 For Immediate Release
press@RiseUp4AbortionRights.org
973 544 8228
Video/pictures of nationwide protests available on Twitter and Instagram, credit RiseUp4AbortionRights.org
Interviews Available in English & Spanish

Today, July 4, thousands of people in over 50 cities across the country, from the nation’s capital to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle and in Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio, Arkansas where abortion is banned or immediately threatened, answered the call from RiseUp4AbortionRights to go into the streets to demand the Federal Government restore nationwide legal abortion now. “When Women Are Not Free, No One Is Free!” they chanted.

"Celebrate 'independence'?" said Sunsara Taylor, a co-initiator of Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights, "Not when the highest court in the land just said that women do not have the right to control their own bodies, reproduction and destinies. When women are not free, no one is free! Rather than celebrate, we took to the streets to demand that the federal government restore legal abortion rights nationwide now!"

In Washington, DC over 100 lined up in front of the White House demanding government action and denouncing the overturning of Roe: “Forced Motherhood = Female Enslavement.” In New York hundreds of protesters rallied in Union Square and marched and rallied in Times Square, drawing hundreds more. Hundreds also marched in Los Angeles, there were die-ins in Chicago and other towns, and creative expression of the ongoing, widespread outrage over gutting women’s basic rights and freedom. Green bandanas, green signs, green banner, green clothes and more were everywhere as organizers had called for: Wear #Green4Abortion.

RiseUp4AbortionRights.org organizers declared,

“The overturning of abortion rights is ILLEGITIMATE! It must not stand! The state has no right to force women to have children against their will. To treat women's wombs as sites of surveillance. To hunt down, put on trial and imprison women who are accused of inducing their own abortions.”

“To fall silent now is to acquiesce to a growing pile-up of the shattered lives of women and girls. It is to acquiesce to the growing theocratic assault on contraception, LGBTQ rights, on the history and lives of Black people and much more.”

They also pledged to continue to organize people in mass nonviolent protests:

“We must Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights NOW! We must fill the streets again and again in massive, sustained and growing nonviolent protest. We must make clear to those in power that we will sooner bring the gears of society to a grinding halt through mass nonviolent resistance than to accept the horror of forced motherhood: When Millions of Women Are Not Safe—There Are No Real ‘Safe Havens’ What Happens To One Of Us Happens To All Of Us”

PROTESTS Scheduled on JULY 4 and JULY 4 WEEKEND

Albuquerque NM, Asheville NC, Atlanta, Austin, Birmingham, Bloomington IN, Boston, Charlotte NC, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, El Paso TX, Escondido CA, Everett WA, Grand Rapids MI, Great Falls MT, Honolulu, Houghton MI, Houston, Kansas City MO, Kingman AZ, Lakeland FL, Las Vegas, Longview, Los Angeles, Miami FL, Muskogee OK, Myrtle Beach SC, New York City, Northampton MA, Philadelphia, Portland ME, Portland OR, Redding CA, Riverside CA, Sacramento CA, Salt Lake City, San Antonio TX, San Francisco, San Ramon CA, Saratoga Springs NY, Seattle, Springfield MO, Tacoma WA, Tallahassee FL, Tampa, Texarkana AR, Towson MD, Washington DC, West Palm Beach FL, and other cities.

See RiseUp4AbortionRights.org and RiseUp4Abortion social media accounts for video, and photos.

Credit RiseUp4AbortionRights.org.