{"id":36205,"date":"2016-03-09T12:28:43","date_gmt":"2016-03-09T18:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=36205"},"modified":"2016-03-09T12:28:43","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T18:28:43","slug":"pro-choice-activists-take-to-the-streets-as-supreme-court-hears-major-abortion-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/pro-choice-activists-take-to-the-streets-as-supreme-court-hears-major-abortion-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro-choice activists take to the streets as Supreme Court hears major abortion case"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Enrica Nicoli Aldini<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia and the ensuing warfare in the Senate over his successor, an understaffed Supreme Court met Wednesday to hear a challenge to a Texas law that would shut down all but 10 abortion clinics in the state, with likely reverberations at the national level.<\/p>\n

To speak up for abortion rights, activists with Feminist Uprising to Resist Inequality and Exploitation, a local group also called FURIE, demonstrated on the Federal Plaza Wednesday at a moment when access to legal and safe abortions is threatened. A likely 4-4 Supreme Court gridlock on Whole Woman\u2019s Health v. Hellerstedt would in fact automatically reaffirm the lower court\u2019s decision, substantially upholding the restrictions on abortion clinics in Texas.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As demonstrators walked in a circle on the plaza, waving pro-choice banners and signs and chanting \u201cOur bodies, our lives, our right to decide\u201d and \u201cKeep your rosaries off my ovaries,\u201d Lisa Richards shared her concerns that if the Supreme Court gets stuck at a deadlock on Woman\u2019s Health v. Hellerstedt, states will be free to legislate over abortion. In the more conservative states, it might become increasingly hard, if not impossible, for women to get an abortion.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_8209\"
FURIE demonstrators picketed for abortion rights on the Federal Plaza (Enrica Nicoli Aldini\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alyson Kennedy, a speaker at the demonstration who is running for president of the United States with the Socialist Workers Party, called the law in Texas \u201creactionary\u201d and advocated for the Supreme Court to overturn it. \u201cToday, people are marching all over the country,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have to keep this up. The right for a woman to choose abortion is her decision. It\u2019s a fundamental right of women to decide when they want to have children. It relates to her being able to control her own life,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Kennedy lamented that since the Supreme Court reached the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in 1973, anti-abortion lawmakers have repeatedly tried to chip away at women\u2019s rights to abortion.<\/p>\n

For Ellie Molise, a junior at Loyola University, who took over the microphone after Kennedy, the intrusion of lawmakers in women\u2019s reproductive rights is a byproduct of a cultural environment that represses the conversation on women\u2019s health and sex lives. Lawmakers, she said, are disguising their policies as ways to protect and advance women\u2019s health, while in truth, they are only placing restrictions on safe access to abortion.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who find themselves with an unwanted pregnancy have been forced into ignorance,\u201d Molise said, to the crowd\u2019s enthusiastic cheers. \u201cIt\u2019s time for us to demand more. I want to live in a country that prioritizes health care over politics, and where abortion is discussed specifically as a way to exercise control over your own body.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steven Schwinn, associate professor of Law at the John Marshall Law School, whose work focuses on constitutional law and the Supreme Court, said the absence of Justice Scalia as the court hears the case \u201cchanges everything,\u201d and a 4-4 deadlock is likely to be the outcome of the hearing, reaffirming the status quo and the restrictions on abortion clinics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suspect they will just put the decision off until they get a ninth justice,\u201d Schwinn said. He added that Anthony Kennedy was the justice to look for in the decision. With a largely muddled history on abortion rights cases, Justice Kennedy holds the crucial vote on Whole Woman\u2019s Health v. Hellerstedt. However, Schwinn said he expected him to join the conservative wing of the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor somebody like Kennedy, it\u2019s going to be a hard case,\u201d Schwinn said. \u201cIt\u2019s possible that he could join the progressive majority, but it\u2019s also equally possible that he won\u2019t. The case is likely to result in a 4-4 split with Kennedy joining the conservative majority, and the court as a whole will see it in the interest of the American people to hold the decision off until there is a ninth justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schwinn added that because the Supreme Court has not ruled on abortion in about a decade \u201cthey are going to want to resolve the issue definitively\u201d at some point.<\/p>\n

As the nation awaits the outcome of the hearing, demonstrators with FURIE who came out on Federal Plaza on Wednesday said they wanted to send the message that the majority of Americans believe that abortions should be safe and legal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important, ever since Roe v. Wade was decided in the 70s, to show support for abortion and reproductive rights in the streets, to show that we are the majority,\u201d said Bria Berger, a FURIE organizer. \u201cOur strength is in our numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IMG_8207\"
Enrica Nicoli Aldini\/MEDILL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All demonstrators shared the belief that the real fight for choice takes place in the streets, and not in court rooms.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbortion is a human right,\u201d demonstrator Eloise Sewell said. \u201cThe fight started in the streets, and it\u2019s going to end in the street.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Pro-choice activists gathered on Federal Plaza the day a gridlocked Supreme Court heard a major case on abortion, which threatens to shut down all but 10 abortion clinics in Texas. (Enrica Nicoli Aldini\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Enrica Nicoli Aldini After the sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia and the ensuing warfare in the Senate over his successor, an understaffed Supreme Court met Wednesday to hear a challenge to a Texas law that would shut down all but 10 abortion clinics in the state, with likely reverberations at the national level. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":195,"featured_media":36212,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[585],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-winter-2016"],"yoast_head":"\nPro-choice activists take to the streets as Supreme Court hears major abortion case - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/pro-choice-activists-take-to-the-streets-as-supreme-court-hears-major-abortion-case\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pro-choice activists take to the streets as Supreme Court hears major abortion case - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Enrica Nicoli Aldini After the sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia and the ensuing warfare in the Senate over his successor, an understaffed Supreme Court met Wednesday to hear a challenge to a Texas law that would shut down all but 10 abortion clinics in the state, with likely reverberations at the national level. 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