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Around 200 people gathered outside the James M. Hanley U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building Tuesday evening to protest a leaked U.S. Supreme Court draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade.

“If you’re feeling angry, let me hear you,” said Tom Keck, a political science professor at Syracuse University, as he opened his speech at the rally. “If you’re feeling determined, let me hear you. There’s folks gathered like this in hundreds of cities all around the country right now.”

Women’s March Syracuse hosted the rally, where speakers from both legislative and advocacy backgrounds voiced disapproval of the draft opinion and called for action to protect reproductive rights.

The opinion, authored by Justice Samuel Alito, documents the court’s vote to overturn the precedent set by Roe v. Wade and reinforced by Planned Parenthood v. Casey. These decisions have maintained the right for people who can get pregnant to have an abortion, with provisions for state regulation past the third trimester, according to the 1973 ruling.

The protest was among demonstrations in cities such as Philadelphia, Albany and New York City on Tuesday. At a protest in D.C., U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren expressed her anger toward the draft opinion to a crowd of protestors.

Keck, who specializes in constitutional law, spoke about the implications of the draft opinion and its assertions. In anticipation of students having questions in his Tuesday class, Keck said he read the 90-page draft and broke it down for students to best convey its logic.

In his speech, Keck explained the draft’s focus on the absence of abortion rights in the Constitution. Keck also established the opinion’s standard that long-standing traditions of American society have allowed abortions to be legally regulated. The standard in the interpretation established by this opinion, Keck said, spans beyond just the issue of abortion.

“(That) standard literally is — I’m not exaggerating at all — that ‘if we have a long history of taking your rights away, we can keep taking them away,’” Keck said. “It is not going to stop with abortion. We know (the Supreme Court is going to) come for contraceptive access. We know they’re (going to) come for LGBTQ rights. We know they’re coming for voting rights.”

Eric van der Vort, a doctoral candidate at SU and a staffer for New York State Senator Rachel May, spoke on behalf of May at the rally. Van der Vort echoed Keck’s statement that the decision will not be limited to only reproductive rights. In reference to previous bans on same-sex marriage and intimacy, van der Vort urged protesters to prevent successive restrictions by voting.

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“It’s not going to stop with just the woman’s right to choose,” van der Vort said. “Vote early and for the young folks that are there, we pass laws, and you can register to vote at 17 or 16 years old. You might as well get pre-registered now.”

When Democrats took control of the state senate in 2019, New York state wras able to codify Roe v. Wade via the Reproductive Health Act. Van der Vort said the act distinguishes the state’s commitment to the fight for reproductive rights.

Only three other states, as well as Washington D.C., have codified Roe v. Wade. In 2019, Vermont and Rhode Island codified the right to abortion, and in 2020, Massachusetts passed a law that codified the right to an abortion and expanded access to reproductive care.

Van der Vort emphasized New York State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins’ repeated statement that New York has long stood as a place of refuge for the rest of the world.

He said that leaders will ensure the state continues to support people who need resources. New York is a state of immigrants, working people and unions, van der Vort said, and it will continue to be going forward.

Hillary Warner, the manager of Outreach & Education Programs at Planned Parenthood of Central and Western New York, also spoke to New York state’s position as a secure state for reproductive rights.

“I want to remind everybody first and foremost, let’s be clear, abortions are still legal,” Warner said. “Abortion will remain legal in New York state no matter what happens to Roe, but we cannot be complacent here in New York. Abortion bans anywhere threaten all of us.”

The draft opinion is unprecedented, Warner said, and it precipitates increased inequality for individuals who do not have the resources to seek safe abortion care or travel out of state in order to recieve a safe abortion.

Black, Latino and Latina, Indigenous and other people of color are disproportionately impacted by abortion bans — a direct product of the U.S.’s racist and discriminatory history, Warner said.

“The people who this decision will most harm need to be front and center in our response,” she added.

The Equal Rights Amendment proposed by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y is a historic opportunity to prevent discrimination based on race, ethnicity, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression and sex, including pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes, Warner said.

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On Tuesday, May 10, Planned Parenthood — in conjunction with the New York Civil Liberties Union and the National Institute for Reproductive Health — will organize buses to transport protesters to Albany to rally and meet with legislators in support of the Equal Rights Amendment, Warner said. There will be specific bus pickup locations throughout Syracuse.

Dana Balter, an organizer of the protest, also emphasized the importance of voting for proactive legislation in order to defend reproductive rights. Balter, formerly the Democratic Party nominee for New York’s 24th Congressional District in 2018 and 2020, currently serves as the worldview program director for Citizen Action of New York.

“It’s as important as it’s ever been to elect people to office in November who are going to fight for freedom and fight to protect the civil rights of every single person in this country,” Balter told The Daily Orange in an interview.

Onondaga County Legislator Mary Kuhn, who represents the county’s 7th District, held up a photo of herself from the 1970s, a time when she said she attended similar protests to Tuesday’s demonstration

Kuhn, who previously worked as the Director of the Onondaga County’s Child and Adolescent Outpatient Mental Health Clinic, mentioned that until 1972, women couldn’t get contraception. Now, she said, access to contraception is at risk again.

“I can’t believe I’m still here doing this sh*t,” Kuhn said.

“You young women out here, I’ve done this stuff and I will continue, but I only have a limited time. You guys have decades,” she added. “You can’t give up. You’ve got to vote.”

Published on May 4, 2022 at 3:19 am

Contact Katie: ksmcclel@syr.edu | @katie_mcclellan