“I’m here today to tell you that it is okay to be angry,” one of the speakers, who declined to provide their name, told the crowd, who gathered in Atlanta Tuesday night to protest a draft Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the day after its unprecedented leak.  

“My name, and who I am affiliated with, does not matter,” they said, before going on to recount being a rape victim, and their decision to terminate the resulting pregnancy.

Being forced to endure a pregnancy following sexual trauma, was among the most harrowing of potential outcomes, in a future in which abortion is criminalized, as discussed at the event. Another was maternal mortality rates, the highest of which are in Georgia, where Black women are 2.3 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes, than any other group. 

Citing the failure of the Women’s March in 2017 to galvanize around reproductive issues affecting women of color, local organizer and Voice of the People founder, Mina Turabi addressed the need for white women to confront that failure, and to prioritize abortion access not only as a health issue but a criminal justice issue, disproportionately affecting the non-white global majority.

“White women have centered themselves in feminism and the right to abortion and reproductive care. So for a second, I need y’all to un-center yourselves. . .

Not if, but when [Roe v. Wade] is overturned, what will happen is that if a woman has a miscarriage, the legislators will come back and say, “Maybe she tried to have an abortion.” And what will happen is they will go to the Black women, and the brown women and they will say, ‘You tried to have an abortion, so we’re going to put you in jail.’

Any policy that suppresses our freedom targets Black people first.”

The crowd of at least a thousand, according to figures from the Party for Socialism and Liberation, who organized the event, carried signs that read “Reproductive Justice is Intersectional,” “She is We,” with uplifted black, brown, and white fists, alongside signs saying “The workers struggle has no borders,” and “Banning abortion= More people born into poverty for you to exploit,” did seem to signal a return to inclusivity and intersectionality, upon which the reproductive justice movement was originally founded. 

Although Politico quotes Justice Alito, in the exclusive report on the draft leak, as writing in the majority opinion, “’ We emphasize that our decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right,’” Alito’s arguments, also outlined by Politico, that abortion’s historical criminalization nullifies its implied constitutionality, and that “rights protected by the Constitution but not explicitly mentioned in it — so-called unenumerated rights — must be strongly rooted in U.S. history and tradition,” seemed to many of those at the protest, to indicate the opposite.

Garrett, who declined to provide his last name, along with his partner, Jacques, expressed his concern: “Fifty years ago this was established in Roe v. Wade, and since then Republicans have been trying. . . to nullify it. It’s really unfortunate. And once they take away the rights of people with uteruses, they’ll come after workers next, or unions, they’ll come after gay people, really any marginalized group.”

Out of the stories from people with uteruses, emerged shared experiences of trauma and working-class struggle. 

Walking hand in hand through the crowd, Tamia Durden and her partner, Hay Domino, spoke about how Roe v. Wade’s reversal could make their lives untenable.   

Durden pointed to the experience of childhood in this particular moment in time, “As a group of young adults, we know what childhood trauma can do to your entire life growing up. So why should people who absolutely know they’re not ready, be forced to bring somebody else into this? We’re having a climate crisis right now, we’re low on resources, this is not the time.”

Domino added, “Prices for everything are going up. I can’t sustain a child. We shouldn’t be forced to sustain children if we can’t.”

A woman who chose to be referred to simply as Leo spoke of growing up in an “unstable situation” due to her mother remaining in an unhappy marriage, after becoming pregnant with her.

As a result, Leo said, “I have mental health issues, physical issues, the whole gamut. I went to a very expensive school, have so much student loan [debt]- there’s no way I could have afforded to have a kid- I still can’t. And I make what is ostensibly a middle-class salary. You can’t force someone to have a child that they can’t take care of.”

Following a march from Centennial Park, where the protest started, to the Capitol, PSL organizer Leela Anand spoke passionately in front of the steps, about Roe v. Wade’s impending reversal is simply the latest in the entire history of decisions by the Supreme Court, whose legitimacy PSL is challenging, for its denial of basic human rights to entire groups of people.

“This is why we say the Supreme Court should be abolished, period. Because why should mine unelected judges, appointed for a lifetime. . .have the power to eviscerate the rights of hundreds of millions of people in this country overnight?! This institution makes a mockery of the notion of a democratic society.”

From within the system, organizers urged protestors to vote in municipal elections, to become members of local reproductive rights organizations, and prioritize donating to those local organizations ahead of national organizations. The Amplify GA Collaborative, a local reproductive justice organization, is hosting a zoom call on Wednesday, May 11 to discuss the draft decision, and ways to become involved.

President of the NAACP state conference, Gerald Griggs, urged protestors to call President Biden, and urge him to sign an Executive order protecting reproductive rights.

Here in Atlanta, Attorney Griggs called for solidarity and action.

“We’re going to show them that this is the birthplace of Civil Rights, not the graveyard.”