Washington DC—Activists from the community collective OurRightsDC, an organization of concerned citizens in the DC metro area, walked to the White House on Tuesday afternoon to pressure President Joe Biden to declare a public heath emergency over rising numbers of pregnancy related health emergencies in hospitals across the country. They carried a hand-painted rainbow-hued banner reading “Public Health Emergency” with signs they also hand made. Several handed out flyers with instructions for pregnant persons to obtain and use abortion pills.
The organizers are known internationally for their 15-week sustained protests, which they refer to “Roe-tests“ at the homes of Supreme Court Justices since early May of this year. The Roetests were in response to the unauthorized pre-release in May of the Dobbs decision and subsequent June 24 ruling with overturned Roe, a 50-year old federal law which enshrined abortion liberties to pregnant people. The organizers have been hounded online for their actions and perseverance but nonetheless have continued their organizing as support for their cause has been overwhelming.
Speakers were critical of a lack of action on the part of Congress to act to codify Roe into Federal law in the decades Roe was on the books but were also critical of President Biden for failing thus far to issue an executive order setting aside federal funding for urgently needed medical assistance in States whose legislators have passed trigger-laws banning abortion.
“Biden introduced a bill to increase funding for police forces across the country. That bill was $37 billion. Where is that money when it comes to abortion rights?” said Sadie Kuhns, who uses pronouns they/them.
“If we can fund the people who are enforcing laws that we are criminalized by [then] we can definitely fund abortion healthcare across the country, we can declare a public health emergency, and we can save people from trigger-laws in States where people are bleeding out on their hospital beds,” said Kuhns.
Nadine Seiler, an organizer and civil rights activist, said that Black women were more likely to be impacted by the Supreme Court Dobbs ruling than their contemporaries because Black women were more likely to be victims of sexual and domestic abuse. “Black women make up 12.9% of the women in the U.S. but are 40% of the women who get abortions,” she said. “Why is this a thing? For starters, Black girls and women are disproportionately raised in sexual and domestic abuse mainly due to systemic racism and its ripple effects [are] impacting the Black community,” she said.
Carley Hughes, a teacher in the local area said that she was speaking for women everywhere as a mother and as a concerned parent. “I am here because of my love for children and my love for people. Being pro-choice is being pro-child. In Tennessee there are only three abortion clinics. In Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Texas, there are no clinics providing abortions. Thats zero,” she said.
To support OurRightsDC and their efforts to restore national abortion rights visit this link.
