USA: Pro-choice demonstrators rally against abortion bans at Senate office building

M/S Protesters laying banner on floor: "Our bodies, our courts, our democracy", Washington, D.C.
C/U Protester singing
M/S Protesters singing
M/S Protesters holding signs: "House Democrats must get the Kavanaugh docs now", "Don't let Kavanaugh have the last word on Roe"
C/U Protester chanting "This is what democracy looks like"
W/S Protesters walking in circle
M/S Protesters chanting "This is what democracy looks like"
M/S Protesters chanting "Our body, our choice"
W/S Protesters chanting ""This is what democracy looks like"
M/S Protesters chanting "Our body, our choice"
W/S Protesters chanting "Our body, our choice"
w/s Protesters chanting "Our body, our choice"
SOT, Jennifer Epps-Addison, Network President and Co-Executive Director of the Centre for Popular Democracy: "We see the rise in abortion bans, forced birth bans that are targeting women, particularly women of colour all across this country and we want to make clear that we will not stand for it. It is our bodies and our choice. We understand that the right to abortion and the ability to access abortion when you need it is not just a women’s issue, but it’s a fundamental issue about freedom and equity in our democracy. So we are tying those issues together and we are asking people especially to pay attention to the Supreme Court, the rigged Supreme Court, and to make sure that we are fighting on every cylinder for women’s rights to have self-determination and control over our bodies."
M/S Banner and protesters chanting "This is what democracy looks like"
C/U Protester chanting "Show me what democracy looks like"
M/S Protester wearing Handmaid's Tale costume
W/S Protesters
SOT, Protester: "I had to make the most awful decision a parent should ever have to make, terminate one precious son to save the other, abortion saved my son's life and he is now 12 years old."
M/S Protesters with signs *CUTAWAY*
SOT, Protester: "Rapists, paedophiles, domestic abusers and pimps ask for custody of children, they get it. That's why I'm here."
W/S Protesters
C/U Police officer issuing warning
C/U Epps-Addison chanting
M/S Crowd marching and chanting "I believe that we will win"
M/S Crowd marching and chanting "I believe that we will win"
SCRIPT
Dozens of pro-choice activists from the Centre for Popular Democracy (CPD) gathered at the Hart Senate Office building in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday to protest anti-abortion laws being enacted in several US states.
The activists rallied in the hall of the Senate building to call congressional representatives to take action and protect abortion rights for women in the US.
The protesters deployed a banner reading "Our bodies, our courts, our democracy" and chanted slogans such as "Our body, our choice" and "This is what democracy looks like."
Jennifer Epps-Addison, Network President and Co-Executive Director of the CPD said: "We see the rise in abortion bans, forced birth bans that are targeting women, particularly women of colour all across this country and we want to make clear that we will not stand for it." She added that she wants people to "pay attention to the Supreme Court, the rigged Supreme Court, and to make sure that we are fighting on every cylinder from women’s rights to have self-determination and control over our bodies."
A wave of protests followed Alabama's passing of a law which banned abortion in almost all cases. Sixteen other states are seeking to follow suit.
Supporters of Alabama's abortion ban say they expect the law to be blocked in court, but hope that the appeals process will bring it before the US Supreme Court.
They hope the highest court in the land will overturn the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling which made abortion a right across the US.