Less than two weeks after the leak of the draft Supreme Court opinion by fascist “Justice” Alito that would overturn Roe v. Wade, tens of thousands of people poured into the streets in more than 450 cities across the country against the moves to take away the right to abortion. Rallies and marches took place in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other major cities as well as in smaller cities and towns from coast to coast. The day of protests were called for by Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights as well as more mainstream organizations like Planned Parenthood, the Women’s March, and MoveOn. These powerful demonstrations taken as a whole made unmistakable the potential for people to really rise up and wage relentless, determined struggle to actually force the Supreme Court to back down.

Most people went to the more mainstream demonstrations. And it was definitely a good thing that these happened. At the same time, the program from the stage was often bogged down in Democratic Party politics focused on voting AFTER Roe is overturned—a program that both leads nowhere good and actually draws people away from the fight that urgently needs to be waged now.

That’s part of why it was important that more than 10,000 people in major cities, including many who also participated in the more mainstream events, marched in the streets in the actions called by Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights (RU4AR) under the slogans:

Overturn Roe? HELL NO!

STOP the Supreme Court From Taking Away the Right to Abortion!

Forced Motherhood = Female Enslavement

Abortion On Demand and Without Apology!

These demands represent the fundamental interests of the people and most important dividing lines of this struggle and in many cities Rise Up demonstrators went to the mainstream demonstrations to both unite with people’s sentiments and struggle over the way forward, as concentrated in these slogans and demands.

As the guide to this issue of Revolution newspaper says about the May 14 day of abortion rights protests, “It was an opening wave with the potential not just to derail the locomotive now speeding down the tracks to outlaw abortion, but to begin to change the whole direction of things. Whether that potential is realized is in significant part up to those of you reading this.”

A key part of the message in the protests led by Rise Up was for people to not just act this one day but to keep struggling in the streets to STOP the Supreme Court from decimating the right to abortion: Calls went out for Thursday, May 19, National Green Up and Walk Out; and Thursday, May 26, SHUT THE COUNTRY DOWN—at noon, leave work, leave school, converge in the streets, no business as usual!

Many who came out into the streets were young women from high schools and colleges who were not yet born when Roe v. Wade made abortion legal in the U.S. and are now faced with the possibility of that right being stamped out by a fascist court—as well as women who had lived through times when abortion was illegal, and men who see the crucial importance of everyone standing up for this right.

Homemade signs carried by protestors showed some of the sentiments of those who took action, among them: “Fuck you and your ‘opinion’ SCOTUS”; “Not the church, not the state, women must decide their fate”; “The US government has declared WAR on women”; “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty” (with a picture of a slash over a coat hanger, symbol of illegal abortions).

At the flagship RU4AR protest in New York City, thousands filled Union Square—among them many high school students who had walked out of school a few days earlier. People then marched through the streets, with defiant young women in the lead, some going to Foley Square to link up with protesters from the “Bans Off Our Bodies” protests who had marched across the Brooklyn Bridge.

In Chicago, Boston, and other cities, protesters did die-ins in the street to dramatize the life-and-death stakes for women in the battle over abortion. Protesters in Austin, Texas, marched to the convention center where Donald Trump—who, as president, had put three fascists on the current Supreme Court—was speaking. RU4AR protesters were also a dynamic part of the protests in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. Dozens of speakers at rallies in various cities spoke to the urgency of the moment—on this page are a few examples.

The May 14 actions called by RU4AR was the culmination of a week of action, including school walkouts and other protests. And as inspiring as the May 14 protests across the country were, as RU4AR says: STAY IN THE STREETS!!!!!