Hundreds of people of all ages gathered at De la Guerra Plaza in Santa Barbara on Tuesday evening for a rally in support of reproductive rights organized by Planned Parenthood of California Central Coast and Women’s March Santa Barbara.
The rally, followed by a march to the Santa Barbara Courthouse, took place in response to the Supreme Court draft majority opinion — leaked to Politico on Monday night — that would overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision, effectively ending constitutional protection of abortion rights.
“This is about more than abortion. Roe is the canary in the coal mine here. We see it already — politicians in hostile states and the Supreme Court are coming for our birth control, our marriage rights, and they’re coming after trans health care,” said Jenna Tosh, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of California Central Coast. “It’s about who has power over you, who gets to decide what your family and future look like. … The stakes are high, and we will not back down.”
While what was leaked was just a draft and abortion remains legal, the final ruling is expected sometime before July. There are 26 states that are expected to move to ban abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned — including 13 states with “trigger laws” that would immediately ban abortions.
According to Tosh, that would lead to 36 million people in those states losing the right to safe and legal abortions.
Several elected officials were present at the rally, including Santa Barbara County Third District Supervisor Joan Hartmann and former state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, who both spoke during the event.
“You cannot be an independent woman if you can’t have a say about when you’re going to have a child,” Hartmann said. “I only know to do what we always have to do — we have to pick ourselves up, we have to organize, we see what a difference it makes.”
Supporters attending the rally showed off homemade signs with messages such as “Bans off our bodies” and “My body, my rules.”
“We demand to be treated as equal human beings, and the only way that can happen is if we are given our dignity, our respect and our reproductive freedom, because we are the child bearers, and unless we can control when, with whom and whether we have children, we will never be equal in this nation,” Jackson said. “It is our solemn duty to make sure that we do not go back, we do not go back and undermine the rights of women.”
Other elected officials who attended the rally included First District Supervisor Das Williams, Second District Supervisor Gregg Hart, a representative from Congressman Salud Carbajal’s office, among others.
Luz Reyes-Martín, vice president of community engagement for Planned Parenthood of California Central Coast, said more rallies and marches across the nation are scheduled for May 14, and more information on local action will be released soon.
— Noozhawk staff writer Serena Guentz can be reached at sguentz@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.