Approximately 1,000 people took to the streets of downtown Boston to protest the recently leaked U.S. Supreme Court draft opinions that suggests that the highest court in the land could be poised to overrule Roe v. Wade sometime soon.
The protesters occupied the city streets early Tuesday evening and stopped traffic; particularly on Charles Street between Boston Common and Boston Public Garden. Parked cars near the Public Garden “had to wait” to leave the area, a Boston police officer told NewBostonPost.
The final destination for the protesters was the gates of the Massachusetts State House atop Beacon Hill.
“Boston Liberation Center, Breaking the Chains Magazine, Party for Socialism Liberation, and other organizations planned the protest,” according to Boston.com.
Two individuals holding a Communist Party USA flag were seen on Charles Street, as well.
Some chanted, “Hey hey, ho ho, Supreme Court has got to go.”
Another popular chant: “My body, my right, we won’t give up without a fight.”
And: “What do we do when abortion rights are under attack? Stand up fight back!”
One woman picketing at the rally wore a costume depicting female genitals.
One male Emerson College student who wished to be unnamed told NewBostonPost that “abortions matter.”
The protest on Tuesday, May 3 stemmed from an explosive story published by Politico on Monday night, May 2, which states that five justices of the nine-member U.S. Supreme Court have voted to overturn Roe v. Wade the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. The draft decision, which is not final, would also overturn a 1992 abortion case that followed called Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which declared abortion a fundamental liberty.
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts released a statement on Tuesday, May 3 confirming the authenticity of the draft and announcing a probe to investigate the source of the leak.
“Court employees have an exemplary and important tradition of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial process and upholding the trust of the Court,” Roberts said.
“This was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that is an affront to the Court and the community of public servants who work here. I have directed the Marshal of the Court to launch an investigation into the source of the leak,” Roberts said.
Massachusetts U.S. Senator Ed Markey, a Democrat, reacted in a tweet Monday arguing that the number of justices on the Supreme Court should be expanded to try to overturn the court’s apparent forthcoming decision:
“A stolen, illegitimate, and far-right Supreme Court majority appears set to destroy the right to abortion, an essential right which protects the health, safety, and freedom of millions of Americans. There is no other recourse. We must expand the court.”
Even if Roe v. Wade is overturned, abortions would still remain legal in liberal states such as Massachusetts.
Massachusetts state legislators have repealed pre-Roe statutes that prohibited abortion and in December 2020 approved the ROE Act abortion expansion bill. The new statute lowered the age when a girl needs consent from a parent or a judge for an abortion from 17 to 15; explicitly permits abortions after 24 weeks in the case of a diagnosis of a fatal condition in a fetus; and removed a previous provision in state law that required physicians to try to save the life of a baby born alive after an attempted abortion.
Legislators overrode the veto of Governor Charlie Baker, who supports legal and publicly funded abortion but found the ROE Act bill extreme.
Since a 1981 decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the state has paid for abortions for women whose incomes are low enough to qualify for Medicaid.
The Massachusetts House of Representatives has approved a state budget for the coming fiscal year that would allocate $500,000 to private funds that pay for abortions for women who are not on Medicaid. The budget has not yet been voted on by the state Senate.
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