1-year anniversary of the end of Roe v. Wade brings dueling protests downtown
On the anniversary of the United States Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, 130 pro-abortion rights protesters assembled on the east side of South Dearborn Street on Saturday, holding signs and chanting through bullhorns. Across Dearborn, a similar sized group of anti-abortion advocates rallied in celebration of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that gave states the authority to legislate abortion policy.
Aside from cross talk between both sides, the event stayed peaceful as dozens of vehicles and officers lined the street outside Chicago’s Federal Plaza, separating the groups.
“The fact that (the anti-abortion supporters) were only able to fill maybe a tenth of Federal Plaza is a good sign,” said Andy Thayer of the Gay Liberation Network, which stands in solidarity with the pro-abortion rights movement. “But we can’t be complacent because they have the courts and so many of the legislators behind them. That’s why we have to be in the streets.”
An hour into the rally, the pro-abortion rights group, billing their event as a “counter protest,” followed the anti-abortion supporters on a brief march from Federal Plaza to other locations in The Loop, including Daley Center Plaza and City Hall. Police cars and dozens of biking police rode beside the two groups as they headed down city sidewalks, chanting and singing songs to the beat of the marching band led the pack.
During the march, a brief skirmish broke out between opposing members, triggering police to rush between them as they shouted expletives at each other. One held a “Stop Abortion Now” sign while the other was dressed in black and wore a mask that concealed most of their face.
Pride flags and cardboard signs decorated the east side of Federal Plaza. “Two, four, six, eight, abortion rights in every state!” protesters chanted.
Many attendees came from neighboring states such as Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, with some traveling as far as Georgia.
The pro-abortion rights gathering featured speakers from Stop Trans Genocide, the Gay Liberation Network and Chicago for Abortion Rights. “One year later, and our rage is still raw,” said Nora Dolan of Stop Trans Genocide before the crowd. “One year later, and we’re all still here.”
“Folks across the street, you should agree with me that if a woman does not want an abortion, she should not have to get one,” Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action League, said pointing toward the pro-abortion rights supporters. His nonprofit was joined by Illinois Right to Life and Simply Pro-Life as well as several other local anti-abortion advocacy groups.
Beneath Alexander Calder’s Flamingo statue in Federal Plaza, local leaders in the anti-abortion community, including Peter Breen, a former state representative of DuPage County and current vice president of Thomas More Society, spoke with frustration about the work Illinois lawmakers are doing to expand access to abortion care.
“The elected officials in Illinois are trying to turn us into the abortion capital of the middle of the country,” he said.
Members of the Thomas More Society, a legal nonprofit for conservative causes, said the group is drafting a free speech lawsuit they plan to file if Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs a bill on his desk that would allow the attorney general to fine clinics that don’t offer abortions and use “deceptive practices” to dissuade patients from seeking the procedure.
“I don’t want to give those people any air. I don’t think they deserve it. I think they are hateful and cruel,” said Megan Jeyifo, executive director of the Chicago Abortion Fund, which increases women’s health care accessibility for out-of-state-patients. “But I think it’s important for us to publicly say that you’re not welcome in the city of Chicago.”
Megan Carlson, a 35-year-old from the Ukrainian Village, stood among the crowd, holding a sign reading “For abortion and full reproductive rights.”
“Human rights are under attack right now,” she said. “We need to show up to stuff like this to show that we are the majority.”
LGBTQ groups aligned themselves with the pro-abortion rights group, arguing that this protest was about more than abortion. Thayer of the Gay Liberation Network took the microphone to express the importance of solidarity between differing social groups.
“We’re really talking about autonomy, bodily autonomy for all and our right to make our own decisions,” he said. “I, as a cis gay man, need to stand up for abortion rights.”
“We’re speaking with one voice today,” said Chicago For Abortion Rights spokesperson Linda Loew.
Scheidler—whose father created Pro-Life Action League which has become a leading anti-abortion advocacy group in the state—said LGBTQ issues are not relevant to the abortion argument.
“They’ve got various kinds of pride flags. This issue has nothing to do with that. Same-sex couples can’t even get pregnant,” he said. “It suggests to me that they don’t really get the issue.”
Pro-abortion rights organizers expressed the importance of garnering visibility for their cause.
“I also think anytime we are in the street, and in public and in our communities, saying the word abortion, we move the needle,” said Jeyifo. “We are demanding that we don’t use euphemisms, we don’t say reproductive health or women’s rights. We actually say abortion, we want access to abortion.”
“A Pritzker-run Illinois is an Illinois that doesn’t care about life,” said Birjan Crispin, of Wheaton. “We’re here to let the governor and a democratic controlled state know that we are here to stay and we are here to fight and protect for the unborn.”
While Scheidler said his anti-abortion group doesn’t “expect Illinois to become a pro-life haven,” he hopes the state will “come to its senses” and enact policy that he feels is more representative of the interests of residents, such as ending taxpayer funding to abortion clinics and “abortion in the second or third trimesters of a pregnancy.”
“I don’t think Illinoisans are excited about the idea of Illinois becoming a destination state for abortion the way it has,” said Scheidler, of Aurora.
In the year since Roe v. Wade was overturned, Illinois has kept abortion care highly accessible while neighboring states such as Kentucky and Missouri have implemented some of the most restrictive policies in the nation, according to the Guttmacher Institute. As a result, Illinois has experienced a rise in abortions from out-of-state residents.
Around 20,000 to 30,000 abortions are performed in Illinois on out-of-state patients each year, according to loose predictions from Planned Parenthood of Illinois.
“In the past year alone, we have strengthened legal protections for providers and patients, increased Title X funding, and removed copays for birth control and medication abortions,” Pritzker said in a statement provided to the Tribune, adding that the upcoming budget carves out $18 million for reproductive health initiatives. “As long as I am Governor, abortion will remain safe and legal in Illinois.”
Jennifer Welch, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Illinois, said Chicago residents “probably have not seen a change in their (abortion) care” since the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“But what’s happening is they’re sitting in a waiting room with somebody who has traveled from another state,” she said. “Some of the patients with them in the waiting room will have driven hundreds of miles for care.”
Scheidler sees it as a good sign that both sides squared off at the same place.
“That suggests to me that they can see we’ve got a strong message and we’ve got an important message to deliver, the fact they want to counteract it in some way,” Scheidler said. “So, I welcome their presence as a sort of mark of what we’re doing.”
A group of “pro-life senior citizens” from Aurora and Arlington Heights told the Tribune they accomplished their mission of celebrating the Dobbs decision and educating the public about their views.
“It was laughable when they said ‘you want babies to die,’” said Bill Brucks. His friend Mike Schoenwald continued his thought by saying “half the people that walk into an abortion clinic are going to die.”
Pro-abortion rights organizers said they felt the event went positively.
“I think today’s event was an amazing showing of solidarity,” said Lisa Battisfore, founder and president of Reproductive Transparency Now. “This is just the first of many, many, many actions that we will be taking to make sure that Illinois stays a place for abortion access.”
Chicago Tribune’s Jeremy Gorner contributed.
