RICHMOND, Va -- Organizers said about 1,000 people turned out in Richmond Saturday for a Women’s March in support of reproductive rights and continued access to abortion.
Crystal Johnson called abortion a form of health care for women.
“It's our choice to make the decision as to what we want to do with our bodies,” Johnson said. “I don't think the government should have a say what a woman chooses to do with their bodies, especially men, who don't have a reproductive system, like a female reproductive system."
The rally, which happened at Diversity Richmond, was one several marches that took place in cities across the country. There was also a demonstration in Washington on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court.
The rallies came just before the start of a new term for the Supreme Court that will decide the future of abortion rights in the nation.
The protests also come on the heels of a Texas lawthat effectively bans abortion before some women know they are pregnant, and there are no exceptions in cases of rape or incest.
Abortion providers said the law has resulted in women traveling hundreds of miles to get an abortion, so that out-of-state clinics are backlogged with patients from Texas.
The Texas law is the nation’s biggest curb to abortion rights since the court announced in its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that women have a constitutional right to abortion.
