All around me there are people. All around me, there is red. Women with red handprints painted over their mouths, people with signs, people with megaphones. And there’s me. I stand out in the crowd wearing a newsprint jacket over my red t-shirt. I thought it was fitting, and it does its purpose. They came here to protest. I came here for stories.

“Roe v. Wade has been a critical part of women's healthcare for decades. Overturning it is a huge step backward for our society,” a woman explains. Her name is Jessica Adams and she’s one of the speakers bravely sharing her tale today.

June 24th, 2024, is the second anniversary of the disastrous Dobbs decision. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, it opened the doors for a dystopian future for women across the United States. 

Feminists are taking action — striking, marching, getting out the vote — across the country.

Roe v. Wade was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 that established a woman's legal right to an abortion under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

The case was brought forward by "Jane Roe," an alias for Norma McCorvey, a Texas resident who sought to terminate her pregnancy but was unable to do so legally under Texas law, which prohibited abortions except to save the mother's life. Henry Wade, the district attorney of Dallas County, Texas, was the defendant responsible for enforcing the state’s abortion laws.

Roe's attorneys argued that Texas laws criminalizing most abortions violated her constitutional rights to privacy and liberty as protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The state of Texas argued that it had a compelling interest in protecting prenatal life and the health of the mother, justifying the restrictions on abortion.

On January 22nd, 1973, the Supreme Court, in a landmark 7-2 decision, ruled that the Texas law violated Roe's right to privacy. Justice Harry Blackmun wrote the majority opinion.

The Court established a trimester framework to balance the state's interests with a woman's privacy rights. In the first trimester of pregnancy, the decision to abort was left to the woman and her physician. In the second trimester, states could regulate abortions in ways reasonably related to maternal health. Once the fetus reaches viability in the third trimester, states could restrict or ban abortions, except when necessary to protect the mother's life or health.

The Court located the right to privacy within the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, recognizing it as "broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy."

Roe v. Wade effectively legalized abortion nationwide, overturning many state laws that heavily restricted or banned the procedure. The decision sparked intense and ongoing debates on ethical, moral, and legal grounds. Proponents viewed it as a victory for women's rights and reproductive freedom, while opponents saw it as morally wrong and an overreach of judicial power.

“The Dobbs decision is a victory for the sanctity of life and the protection of the unborn,” a man walking with a March for Life banner tells me. “All lives have value! You can’t just get rid of a baby if you decide you don’t want it!”

The Roe vs. Wade trial paved the path for more, such as the Planned Parenthood v. Casey trial of 1992. This case reaffirmed the core holding of Roe but replaced the trimester framework with the undue burden standard, allowing states to impose restrictions on abortions as long as they did not place a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion.

But almost 50 years later, on July 24th of 2022, the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case resulted in the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, ending federal protections for abortion rights and returning the authority to regulate abortion to individual states.

“The decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is not just a legal or political issue,” a protester declares. “It's a human rights crisis.”

Following the overturning of Roe, many states enacted or activated laws severely restricting or banning abortions, while other states moved to protect and expand abortion access. The decision has led to a patchwork of abortion laws across the country, reflecting deep political and cultural divisions on the issue.

“Roe v. Wade imposed a one-size-fits-all policy on the entire country. This ruling allows for more localized approaches. It’s more practical, and extremism like this can’t be a solution.” Jackson, who wishes to be known by his first name only, says, gesturing around at the crowd.

The protest is huge, thousands of people coming out to participate. Groups of people with banners and posters march by.

I see a man with a sign reading, “MEN OF QUALITY DO NOT FEAR EQUALITY.”

"I'm here for my daughter, for my wife and , my friends, for everyone who might need access to safe, legal abortion. We have to protect this right,” he tells me. “This is democracy.”

“Right-to-Life your name’s a lie, you don’t care if women die!” An angry chant rises from the streets, targeted towards the counter-protestors.

People are shouting, arm in arm, united by a cause. We march to city hall. I speak to more people. A woman with a sign declaring that, “MOTHERHOOD SHOULD BE A CHOICE, NOT A PUNISHMENT.”

My own sign is held loosely at my side. It seems so small, made of flimsy cardboard and sharpie next to everyone’s large poster boards and cloth banners. A group of girls my age pull up next to me and a brunette smiles. She takes the hand with my poster and pulls it into the air. We exchange a glance and scream the words out together. “IT’S NOT AN ACT OF LOVE IF YOU MAKE HER!”

The rest of her group cheers and hollers with us and a bunch of other protestors join our cry. For a brief second, it’s made of magic. Then it dissipates, swallowed up by the noise of the crowd and other chants.

The rest of the girls have signs like, “KEEP YOUR LAWS OFF OF OUR BODIES,” and my personal favorite, “SO BAD EVEN THE INTROVERTS ARE HERE.”

I look around me and I see humans. Humans with lives, who have the right to choose what happens to their own bodies. A new chant rises up. “Not the church, not the state, women must decide their fate!”

This is not just about abortion. It's about control, and it's about taking away our fundamental rights. And there will always be people who will stand up for them.