Women’s Marches demanding protections for abortion rights will gather thousands across the country on Sunday, the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, which established federal law for abortion.
Organizers said their focus is now on the states after the Supreme Court struck down Roe in June, with more than a dozen states rolling out a wave of abortion restrictions and near-total bans.
“We go where there is conflict, and that happens at the state level,” the Women’s March website reads. The group has dubbed this year’s march the “Big Ten Row”.
The main march will take place in Madison, Wisconsin, where upcoming state Supreme Court elections could determine the balance of power on the court and the future of abortion rights in the state.
Because of the legal uncertainty facing abortion clinics in Wisconsin, you cannot get an abortion.
Two days ago, the March for Life drew tens of thousands of newly active anti-abortion activists to Washington, D.C., with the goal of pushing for a possible nationwide abortion ban, increasingly targeting abortion opponents in Congress.
In the absence of federal protection, abortion rights have become a state issue. In some states, officials have had to deal with laws that prohibited abortion in the 19th century and are still in force.
In Wisconsin, abortion clinics are facing legal questions over the validity of an 1849 law that prohibited the procedure. Apart from saving the life of the patient, the law banning abortion is being challenged in the court.
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Associated Press writer Harm Vanhuizen in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.