In wake of Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision, protesters gather in Williamsburg: ‘I want to have control of my body.’
A sea of signs with phrases like “Abortion is healthcare” or “My uterus doesn’t belong to the state,” broadcast the messages of a hundred protesters who gathered in light of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade: They did not support the decision, and they were not going away.
The protest, outside the Williamsburg-James City County General District Court Friday evening, marked a pattern of nationwide outcry.
The Supreme Court ended the constitutional protection for abortion Friday by overturning Roe v. Wade. The decision puts the power to regulate abortion in the hands of the states. While abortion still remains legal in Virginia, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said he will push for legislation to ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Hundreds protested against abortion bans on Monticello Avenue a month ago, after the Supreme Court’s pending decision was leaked. . They gathered in the same place Friday. Honking cars peppered the cheers, speeches and music. While some people in cars cheered, others disapproved, telling protesters to “go home” or “protect the babies.”
Newport News resident Janeen DeGrave said she came to protest the Supreme Court’s decision.
“It’s not fair. When I heard about it at first, I was outraged,” DeGrave said. “I was reading Governor Youngkin wants to put more pro-life policies in place, and that really just made me feel hopeless.”
Organizer Heather Meaney-Allen said she burst into tears when she heard the news of the decision. Meaney-Allen, who is on the leadership team for Williamsburg JCC Indivisible, an anti-Trump political advocacy group founded five years ago, felt she had to organize another protest so the community could rally together.
“We are now sitting here with all these crazy extremists on our Supreme Court deciding the future. And these are people that don’t care if a young girl is raped, they are going to force her to carry a child to term,” Meaney-Allen, 59, said through tears. “That enough right there is so incredibly horrifying. And it is so cruel. Absolutely cruel.”
Organizers Meaney-Allen and Jeannette Potter, Del. Mike Mullin, D-Newport News, and Democratic candidate for the 1st Congressional District Herb Jones spoke at the rally. They shared their experiences of hearing that Roe v. Wade was overturned and warned that more changes may come — as Clarence Thomas wrote in his majority opinion that the court should review the cases that impact LGBTQ+ rights and access to contraceptives.
“I’ll tell you, it hit me like a ton of bricks this morning. Roe fell. And I thought I can’t believe that we’re doing this again,” said Potter, a long-time protester since the Equal Rights Amendment movement of 1972. “It’s always women’s rights.”
Mullin asked protesters to rally behind legislators who believe health care decisions should remain in the hands of the individual.
“We have a generational fight today, a generational fight to protect the rights of all Americans to make their own health care decisions. Today, the Supreme Court says that this should be up to me as a legislator. And I can tell you, that that is not my job,” Mullin said to the crowd. “That it’s not for me to make the health care decisions. Ever.”
Community members also spoke, sharing their fears, the horror at receiving the news and calling for others to vote for change.
York County resident Easter DiGangi said the court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was alarming to her as a rape survivor, and that the decision could stir memories for others as well.
“I was at work. I felt sick. I wanted to go home. I just wanted to like scream and yell and I’m just so mad,” DiGangi said. “I hate it. I want to have control of my body. I have a daughter, she is 9 years old. And it makes me mad. It makes me mad for her.”
