Carrying colorful signs and banners that read “Doctors don’t teach” and “Abortion is health care,” hundreds of activists chanted, marched and rallied for hours outside the Supreme Court since Tuesday morning, before justices weighed in on the availability of a typically used abortion pill. .
Abortion rights supporters outnumbered abortion opponents, but the two factions occasionally battled over rallying calls, including the safety of the pill, mifepristone. (Studies show that it is, in fact, safe for terminating a pregnancy.)
Some had traveled across the country to protest. Courtney Brown, a cafe owner who helped found an abortion rights group in Amarillo, Texas, where the case began, described her city as “ground zero” in the abortion fight.
She added: “I’m ready to fight back because we’re so tired of taking away those rights.”
Surrounding the court were a handful of small spherical robots containing abortion pills, which operated remotely and were called ‘Roe-bots’. Potential recipients would use the “Roe-bot” to complete a telehealth consultation with a provider in a state where the pill is legal, and the machine would then dispense a pill.
Three New York medical students accompanying the “Roe-bots” emphasized the importance of the case, as future doctors and OB-GYNs at risk of facing restrictions on reproductive care.
Supreme Court justices “didn’t go to medical school,” said Sarah McNeely, a student at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. “You should trust and rely on the FDA, which is a world-class institution full of brilliant people who are very dedicated to their jobs, and you should let them do their jobs and stop trying to politicize science.”
About 13 abortion rights activists were arrested for violating the law against overcrowding, obstructing or trespassing at the US Capitol, according to Capitol Police. The arrests were part of a civil disobedience plan meant to highlight the broad implications of the case, which could drastically limit access to the pill and undermine the FDA’s regulatory authority. for reproductive rights, said Rachel O’Leary Carmona, executive director of the Women’s March, who was among the 13 detainees.
The arrests also send a message to the Supreme Court that “regardless of the outcome, we will ensure that people have access to abortion drugs when they need them,” he added.
As the arguments were ongoing, activists held dueling rallies on both sides of the courthouse steps. Anti-abortion activists have decried the framing of abortion rights as a women’s health issue.
One such activist, Melanie Salazar, 31 weeks pregnant, had written a message on her bare belly: “Fully human.” Feeling her baby move, she said, further crystallized her views on abortion, fueling a hope for “another victory against the abortion industrial complex.”
“My baby is fully human, as am I, and how every child is fully human,” she said.
Abortion rights advocate Celeste McCall, 79, chimed in: “I’m fully human too.”
Ms McCall added that she felt the need to speak alongside Ms Salazar as she was “obviously getting bad information, saying the pills are harmful”.
“I thought we solved all of this 50 years ago when I was young,” she said, gesturing towards the court before running to join in a chant. “Haven’t they done enough damage?”
