Thousands of people marched in Washington, D.C., and across the U.S. on Saturday at rallies in support of reproductive rights after the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade a few months ago.
The marches come one month before the midterm elections.
The Women's Wave day of action was organized by the Women's March along with other advocacy and rights groups, the Washington Post reports. Those groups have called on voters to elect candidates that will help codify the right to abortion after the Supreme Court's decision that ended that right.
People held signs reading "Girls just want to have fundamental rights," "Vote to save women's rights," and "Abort the court."
"Now, everything feels very much like a fight for everything we love," Rachel O'Leary Carmona, the executive director of the Women's March, told the Post. "It's the first election since Roe has fallen in this new era of American democracy, and it's really important that women turn out as a voting bloc."
Out comedian Lea DeLaria told the crowd that women are angry. "We are going to make them listen to us. We have had it," she said.
"The majority of us are ready to get out and fight for democracy and fight for people's bodily autonomy, women and men," participant Kimberly Allen, 70, told Al Jazeera English.
Leading up to the march in D.C., queer musician MILCK told The Advocate Channel, "We are not going back to a culture of complicit silence of accepting abuse towards women as a norm or something that we have to navigate in our professional lives."
MILCK, BIIANCO, Autumn Rowe, and Ani DiFranco are behind the anthem "We Won't Go Back," which became a rallying cry after the overturning of Roe. MILCK performed for the crowd on Saturday.
Democrats have attempted to change the conversation leading up to the election to focus on abortion access since the court's decision in June. In Kansas, a usually conservative state, abortion restrictions were voted down earlier this summer. It's a move that gave hope to reproductive rights advocates.
The Post reports that as the march began at 1:30 p.m., making its way from Folger Park to Union Square, women with megaphones led chants.
"When abortion rights are under attack, what do you do?"
"Stand up, fight back!"
"Two, four, six, eight, we won't be forced to procreate!"
Below, check out a clip showing MILCK and BIIANCO as she preps and performs at the march for abortion access in D.C.
