As the country reeled from this morning’s Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, sending abortion rights back to the states, working professionals and tourists milling downtown in the Loop Friday shared their reaction to the news.
“I’m really disappointed. Like I wanna cry,” said Linda Boulton, from the city’s Far South Side neighborhood Fernwood.
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She said that although she is not concerned for her immediate safety, her like-minded cousins in Mississippi are really concerned because they don’t all have the ability to up and leave.
Roe was struck down when the Supreme Court voted 6 to 3 on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, upholding the legality of a 2018 Mississippi law that banned abortion past 15 weeks gestation.
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Julisa Colon, from Brookfield, said she heard about the ruling on Instagram because all of her female friends were posting about it.
”I’m very angry,” she said, saying she’s in favor of abortion rights because she has had an abortion herself. “I would have had a child with someone who was not a partner.”
She said she is concerned about the strain on Planned Parenthood when residents from other states come to Illinois to access an abortion and about the safety of women trying to access illegal abortions across the country.
Jae Moyer, who uses they/them pronouns, is visiting Chicago from Overland Park, Kansas, for this weekend’s pride events with friends.
They read about the ruling after breakfast downtown.
“I had a panic attack. I tried not cry walking down the street, they said. While they acknowledged the ruling does not affect them as someone who is not able to get pregnant, they said that they are overwhelmed by the consequences of the ruling.
They also said that Kansas will be the first state to vote to make abortion illegal this August.
They planned to attend an abortion-rights rally later today.
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”At the rally today, I hope to see people empowered to go do something and go vote,” they said.
Meanwhile, a handful of abortion rights demonstrators were starting to gather at Federal Plaza.
Miguel Gutierrez, a 51-year-old man visiting Chicago from Brooklyn, New York wore a T-shirt that read “Thank god for abortion” while standing with the small group of people.
He said that he attended the abortion rights rally in New York City a few weeks ago as well, saying “you have to put your body on the line.”
”None of this is a surprise. If you’re half awake you know what’s happening,” he said.
Susan Buchanan, a 60-year-old woman from Oak Park, stuck both her middle fingers in the air in lieu of a sign as a sparse crowd chanted as anti-abortion organizers began to set up for their rally.
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”I’m seething for all the young women that aren’t gonna have the rights that I had when I had my abortion.”
