Some 2,000 people from around the country turned out in the pouring rain to protest for executive action by the Biden Administration for abortion rights.  The action was called by the Women’s March.  The protesters, overwhelmingly women, marched from Franklin Square to the White House, where, in an act of civil disobedience, many sat down and blocked the street, risking arrest.  People also tied hundreds of green bandanas, many that read “Bans Off Our Bodies” onto the White House fence.   Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights had a contingent in the action which brought the demand “Legal Abortion Nationwide Now” front and center with a huge banner.  Rise Up also held a speak out in Lafayette Square prior to the civil disobedience. 

In response to the Rise Up 4 Abortion Right’s call for nationwide protests on July 9 demanding Legal Abortion Nationwide Now, people gathered at Columbus Circle in the heart of Manhattan and then marched to Trump Tower. Along the way, people joined in as we chanted, “Come on, come on and join the fight, abortion is a human right” and “Off your phone and into the street.” At Trump Tower the crowd reached 90 as people who had gathered at Bryant Park joined us, and we rallied for 30 minutes in the street.  Speakers included Sunsara Taylor, a member of the New York City Revolution Club, a 19-year-old Fordham University student, an attorney, and a pediatric urologist, as well as one of the Rise Up activists who had disrupted the WNBA game in Brooklyn.  Protesters held letters that spelled, “Aborto Legal Ya” (“Legal Abortion Now”).  People would stop to listen for a while and clap or cheer. 
 

About 100 people rallied at Daley Plaza and then marched to Federal Plaza to join with others to counter-protest anti-abortion fanatics who were celebrating the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade.

A speaker from RU4AR called for mass resistance in the streets. Juan, a nurse who is running for Congress, and Destiny, a student, read in Spanish and English the beautiful letter of international solidarity from a woman in Mexico that was read at the Los Angeles RU4AR protest. 

People took off on a march to Federal Plaza where they held a die-in, symbolizing the women who have died and will die from illegal abortions.

RU4AR joined with others to confront with chants the hundreds of anti-women/anti-abortionists on the other side of the street. Later in a speak out people got up to testify about the urgent need to protect women’s right to choose.

Three students who had participated in Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights protests and had just graduated from high school, took the initiative to organize a protest for reproductive rights in downtown San Jose, south of San Francisco, which they had posted on Rise Up’s July 9 page calling for demonstrations demanding “Legal Abortion Nationwide Now.”   Some 75 people—including Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights activists, the Raging Grannies, members of the Bay Area Revolution Club, and other youth, students and people from the San Jose community—joined them for a march from City Hall to a nearby park, and a speak out.  The speakers were mostly young—ranging from 10 to 19 years old—as well as veteran revolutionaries, activists, and a community member who told a moving story of feeling shame for her abortion years ago, but now feeling very liberated by speaking openly about it.  Several local TV channels covered the action.

Over 200 people marched to demand that the federal government restore legal nationwide abortion now. Many had been coming to other protests since the Supreme Court overturned the right to abortion. Most of those who spoke at the rally were people who have stepped into this fight over these last weeks. A 19-year-old who spoke about what this will mean for women of color; an artist who helped organize an act of civil disobedience on July 6 in LA, talked about the need to put our bodies on the line—because women's lives are on the line; a young organizer with Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights read a speech from Coco Das about the stakes of this ruling and why we need to persist in the face of ugly and unprincipled attacks. 

Annie Day spoke for the Revolution Club about how this is a rare time where a revolution could be possible—that there’s a need now for people to get organized with this revolution—to wrench out a positive future out of the fascist madness that is being rapidly enforced on society. And she called on people to dig into Bob Avakian, the revolutionary leader and author of the new communism: “There's no one else even talking about real revolution, let alone with an actual strategy and plan... Don’t listen to kneejerk anti-communist scare words that people throw around, like 'cult' and other bullshit. Look into it for yourself because there is too much is at stake for the people of the world.”

Rise Up announced plans to unite with a call from Planned Parenthood for a national walkout Wednesday, July 13. Eriel Indigo and Ania Thomas played a song they wrote together, Renegades, Raging at the Trumpite movement. 

After the march, the Revolution Club organized a discussion of Bob Avakian's short article, “Abortion and the Emancipation of Women.” 

About 150 people in Austin came out to the "Turn the Night Green for Abortion" event that began in a park near Barton Springs, a major recreational area near downtown, and then went through a "night life" area. People joined in the chanting, cheered them on, and a handful joined in. The marchers had green lights in their flashlights, green sparklers and flares, lit-up green necklaces, and other green items, along of course with bandanas and clothing.

Four women with the LA Chapter of RiseUp4AbortionRights.org were arrested after chaining themselves to the front of LA City Hall amidst a river of fake blood. They were wearing bloody pants in a dramatic die-in to represent the women who will die due to the Supreme Court ruling overturning the legal right to abortion. Tennessee Hamilton, one of those arrested said, “We are putting our bodies on the line here today as a call to action because women’s lives are on the line. We cannot sit idly by as we are robbed of our dignity, rights, and futures. If we don’t act now, only terrible things lie ahead. We demand nationwide legal abortion now.”

While on City Hall steps, Luna Hernandez, an organizer with RiseUp4AbortionRights.org and a member of the Revolution Club said: “The Illegitimate Overturning of Abortion Rights MUST NOT STAND! We demand that the federal government restore nationwide legal abortion now. Join us—in mass sustained nonviolent disruptive protest. Get into the streets. There is no neutral. Rise up for abortion rights NOW.”

In a dramatic scene, dozens of LAPD in riot gear amassed to arrest the four women, who were carried away chanting: “This decision must not stand, legal abortion across the land!”

Hamilton, an artist and organizer with RiseUp4AbortionRights, continued: “The people didn’t elect this court and they don’t want this dangerous and irresponsible ban. This is outrageous and we must act as such. We cannot let our shock and our grief muddle our response. We must not be immobilized. We must not rely on voting which did not prevent this atrocity from occurring. The people must make a demand and must take a stand—in the streets and every corner of society. This is about equal rights, equal opportunities, and equal protections. It’s about the lives we value, who gets respected, who gets heard. It’s about knowing and recognizing women are capable, powerful, and truly deserve not only to make their own choices, but to be allowed to live their lives in peace.””

“Forced motherhood is female enslavement.” said Hernandez, “No one should accept this and everyone needs be part of reversing this!”

In Washington, DC over 100 lined up in front of the White House demanding government action and denouncing the overturning of Roe. 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 banners, green clothes and more were everywhere as organizers had called for: Wear #Green4Abortion.

Long Beach, CA

"If women are not free, no one is free," Los Angeles, CA, La Opinión