At the Chicago Abortion Rights Rally, more than 1,000 turn ‘anger into action’ – and vow to keep fighting for choice
UNION PARK — Thousands flooded Union Park Saturday morning to rally for abortion rights at an event hosted by Planned Parenthood Illinois.
The rally came in the wake of a leaked Supreme Court draft that shows the court is set to overturn Roe v. Wade, who has guaranteed the right to safe abortions since 1973, according to Politico. This decision is not final until the opinion is made public, which should happen within the next two months, according to Politico.
Jacqueline Ayers, senior vice president of policy, organizing and campaigns for Planned Parenthood National, said at the rally that the Supreme Court’s leaked draft “confirms [their] worst fears.
“It was a punch,” Ayers said. “I was very shocked, then angry.”
“What you’re all doing right now is turning our rage and anger into action,” Ayers told the huge crowd. “We have never lost a constitutional right before. This Supreme Court seeks to reverse our rights and our access and it is everyone’s fight.
Many states around Illinois are expected to quickly ban or severely restrict abortion access if Roe is overturned, which could lead to Illinois providers seeing an influx of patients from the out of state.
Already, state clinics are helping people in areas like Missouri and Kentucky, which already had strict abortion restrictions in place.
Dr. Allison Cowett, medical director of Family Planning Associates Medical Group, also spoke at the rally, which started in the park at 1501 W. Randolph St. and ended at The Loop.
“I’m a full-time abortion doctor,” Cowett said. “On behalf of the 46,000 people who have abortions in Illinois each year, and the other 20,000 to 30,000 expected to travel to Illinois for abortions in a post-Roe America, thank you for being here and to support this basic human right.”
“The anti-abortion movement — from protesters outside our clinics to partisan conservatives on the Supreme Court — couldn’t be more disconnected from the lives of our patients,” Cowett said. “People’s lives are complex and abortion is a lifeline. It saves lives and makes the future possible.
Eileen Soderstrom came to the rally in her bright pink “abortion clinic escort” vest. Soderstrom began volunteering as an abortion clinic escort at smaller private clinics in 2013, two years after her retirement.
She said escorts go through training to get them ready for the job and she was scared after the first session – but “I decided – do it” anyway, she said.
Saturdays tend to be the worst, she said, when she helps patients past groups of “unclean young men” and “old people setting up deck chairs and bringing prayer beads”.
After working as an escort at an abortion clinic for nearly a decade, Soderstrom said the current situation was “unbelievable.”
Credit : Izzy Stroobandt/Block Club ChicagoBrittany Mostiller works with the National Network of Abortion Funds, but spoke as a We Testify storyteller at the rally.
“I’m here because I’ve had abortions – with an ‘S’,” she said. “And I believe that all people deserve access to the care they need and the care they want. Period.”
“Let them choose to end their education so they can finish their education, if they just don’t feel ready or have no desire to be a parent,” she said. “Or, in my case, choosing to put themselves and their children’s lives first.”
“I didn’t want to carry my pregnancy to term – being a young mother of three was stressful as hell,” she said. “Feeding and loving my children without knowing how to give me those things – it was just too much. I knew getting an abortion was the best thing for all of us at the time, and one of the best decisions I had ever made.
“I am deeply grateful for the support I received from the Chicago Abortion Fund,” she said.
The number of abortion seekers the Chicago Abortion Fund is able to support has grown exponentially over the past three years.
In 2019, the Chicago Abortion Fund supported about 800 people, up from about 3,000 people in 2021, according to the fund’s deputy director, Qudsiyyah Sharyif. Of the people they helped in 2021, 77% were from out of state.
This year, the Chicago Abortion Fund has already helped more than 2,000 people get abortions, Sharyif said at the rally.
Those who showed up at similar rallies across the country over the weekend made it clear that abortion rights supporters will not back down.
“We are the ones who are going to get back into the constitution,” Ayers said. “We are going to demand more than what we had with Roe.”
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