Reproductive rights under attack
Juliet Swimmer, Staff Writer
On Oct. 2 thousands of people, all ages and genders, gathered to march in the streets of Downtown Los Angeles protesting new restrictions to female reproductive rights. Samo’s Girls’ Learn International (GLI) were among the protestors.
The Los Angeles protest stretched from Pershing Square to City Hall. GLI’s club event coordinator, Billie Waxler (’23), felt the importance of the protest after seeing the power of it demonstrated on an enormous scale.
“It’s important to get the word out and inform yourself more on what’s going on in the world, especially when it’s something you’re passionate about and affects your future. Women’s marches are made to give a voice to those who can’t speak up for themselves or fear to,” Waxler said.
Planned Parenthood president Alexis McGill Johnson, Black activist Monica Simpson and comedian Chistela Alonzo spoke at the end of the protest at City Hall.
“Abortion is health care, basic health care, essential health care, health care that cannot wait, but across the country that right is under attack,” Johnson said.
GLI club’s Vice President, Julia Lim (’22), was unable to join her club at the protest, but understands the importance of feminism and advocacy in a time where women’s rights are being highly debated.
“Participating in women’s marches, writing to your congresspeople, being knowledgeable and educating others about feminist issues, brings us closer to inclusion, equity and justice. Each girl and woman should exercise her freedoms and choices, should be able to live free from gender-based violence, go to school, participate in all decisions about her own life and her body and earn equal pay for equal work,” Lim said.
Although many at Samo are pro-choice and disagree with Texas and Mississippi’s new abortion bans, some, such as Will Spotts (’23), are supportive of the new legislation.
“The most important conclusion ever drawn by Western Civilization is that the immeasurable intrinsic value of human life must be protected at all costs for the betterment of all on Earth. It seems that Mississippi and Texas have heroically taken matters into their own hands by enacting several legal statutes aimed at preserving this paramount and indispensable moral,” Spotts said.
The protest began as a result of Texas and Mississippi’s new legislation restricting women’s access to abortion. Texas passed a law that bans abortions six weeks into a woman’s pregnancy when most women don’t even know they’re pregnant. In Mississippi abortions became illegal after 15 weeks. The two laws became the most restrictive abortion laws in the country and therefore support from pro-life individuals and outrage from pro-choice individuals quickly commenced.
To protect their businesses and female reproductive rights, abortion clinics filed a Supreme Court case against the state of Texas because they believed the law blatantly disregarded Roe V. Wade, a Supreme Court case that legalized abortion. Some believe the conservative majority on the Supreme Court could overturn nearly half a century of access to legal abortions.
The 1973 landmark Roe decision set a cemented precedent that has lasted until today. This decision made abortion legal up until the time when the fetus is considered viable, or about 24-28 weeks. The case was brought on by Norma Corvey, a woman who wanted to get an abortion and falsely claimed she was raped because she knew this was the only way she could get one at the time. Since she had not filed a police report, Covey was denied and had to resort to an illegal abortion. When this too failed because the police had shut down the illegal clinic, she found a lawyer to sue for access to an abortion clinic. The case eventually made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court and was passed with a 7-2 majority vote, and further divides America into two distinct groups: pro-life and pro-choice.
If the Supreme Court overturns Roe V. Wade in the case of Dobbs V. Jackson Women’s Health Organization on Dec. 1, the court would be giving the power of allowing or illegalizing abortions to the states. So-called “trigger laws’’ in at least a dozen states would dramatically restrict abortions within weeks of such a decision.
Riya Khatod / The Samohi