Thousands of pro-abortion protesters gathered at Federal Plaza Friday evening, with thousands more spilling into the adjacent streets and sidewalks, to protest the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. Just hours earlier, anti-abortion groups had gathered in much smaller numbers downtown to celebrate the ruling.
Amid signs declaring “Abortion is Healthcare,” and “My Body My Choice,” protesters marched down Dearborn Street and around the Loop.
Imani Jackson, from the south suburbs, said it was overwhelming in a positive way to be among so many others willing to fight for abortion rights.
”It’s not fair because they’re not letting us make decisions on our own,” she said. “If you don’t like abortions, don’t get one. I personally don’t like abortion, but that should not stop you from getting one. And I’m gonna fight for your right to get one.”
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Evelina Knodel is in Chicago this week from New York for an architecture conference. When she heard about the ruling this morning, she looked for a protest she could join in Chicago.
She said while it seems the majority of people are pro-abortion, it isn’t enough to protect women’s right to access.
”I mean, I think anything we can do to raise our voice about how our rights are being taken away is worthwhile,” she said. “I think a lot of people are blowing off steam, but we also need to figure out how we’re going to organize to act. Because this isn’t enough. This is just a collective way to express our anger.”
Earlier in the day, anti-abortion groups held various news conferences downtown to laud Friday’s ruling, predicting that Illinois, a Midwestern refuge for abortion services, will become a target of anti-abortion groups as the debate moves to the states.
Anna Kinskey, associate director of March for Life Chicago, said that while children in Missouri, Kentucky and South Dakota “are safe from abortion today” and that other Midwestern states are likely to follow, “in Illinois, Gov. (J.B.) Pritzker continues to lead in the wrong direction.”
“We do fully expect Illinois to be ground zero in the abortion debate,” said Amy Gehrke, executive director of the anti-abortion group Illinois Right to Life. “I think it is incumbent upon not just our neighboring states that have protective pro-life laws but in states throughout the Midwest and beyond. With Illinois here, there are women and babies still in danger. We’re going to be encouraging people to join us here, to help us win our state for life.”
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The group’s immediate focus will be contacting women coming to Illinois to seek abortions from out of state and connecting them with alternatives, and stopping other pro-abortion rights legislation from advancing in the Illinois General Assembly.
That will be an uphill battle: The Illinois House and Senate both have Democratic supermajorities, and on Friday, Pritzker announced a special session would be held to strengthen the state’s already-stringent protections for reproductive rights.
Longer term, anti-abortion officials said they wanted to see a restoration of the state’s parental notice law that required parents of minors to be informed when their child sought an abortion and new laws requiring clinics providing abortions to be subject to more stringent health inspections.
Illinois Right to Life and its sister organization, Illinois Right to Life Action, will “be letting people know how radical our laws are,” Gehrke continued.
The group has already begun polling on abortion issues and plans to target “a handful of races” where anti-abortion sentiment is high. Gehrke said she would publicize those races after this Tuesday’s primary elections.
“Illinois Right to Life is going to be the tip of the spear, making sure that this happens in our state, that our state does protect the most innocent among us and their mothers,” Gehrke said.
Peter Breen, a former state representative and the vice president of the Thomas More Society, said the Dobbs decision opens up significant legal questions.
“Our entire lives, Roe v. Wade has been the law of the land,” he said. “What is it like when you take what we’d all been told was a constitutional right and a medical procedure, and now in these states, it’s akin to murder. If you’re trying to prevent what you consider to be murder, you have a lot of leeway in terms of what you do to prevent the performance of that act.
“Can Planned Parenthood of Illinois go and bring Iowa residents into Illinois to do something the state of Iowa thinks is murder? That’s going to be a very interesting question for the courts.”
In a statement, Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of the Chicago Archdiocese, welcomed the ruling and “the opportunity it creates for a national conversation on protecting human life in the womb and promoting human dignity at all stages of life. This moment should serve as a turning point in our dialogue about the place an unborn child holds in our nation, about our responsibility to listen to women and support them through pregnancies and after the birth of their children, and about the need to refocus our national priorities to support families, particularly those in need.”
But the anti-abortion advocates gathered amid yells and profanity from passersby and pro-abortion supporters. As the Pro-Life Action League began setting up its platform stage and banners at Federal Plaza Friday afternoon, an abortion rights demonstrator approached the group and shared his story about his mother’s abortion. He said if she didn’t end the pregnancy, she would have been stuck in an abusive relationship.
His anger escalated as he told the story and began to yell. He pulled up the sleeve of his T-shirt to reveal a cross tattoo, saying, “I’m a Christian too.”
“My God is your God. … Read the (expletive) bible,” he said.
Matt Yonke, from Pro-Life Action League, said that in the 15 years he has been demonstrating with the organization, reactions like that are not uncommon.
He said he is a Catholic, and that inspires his stance, though he is excited by younger activists in the anti-abortion movement who are atheists. Meanwhile, a woman stopped at the red light on Adams Street and Dearborn Street, yelling through her car window: “Pro-life is a lie, you want women to die.”
Emma, who is visiting from Kansas and declined to give her last name, was walking by the plaza as the anti-abortion activists gave their speeches and stood in the background. She couldn’t help but cry, she said. The 19-year-old said she has been a victim of sexual abuse. The court overruling “can dictate the lives of women like myself,” she said.
“This is extremely disappointing, and it really hurts me inside,” Emma said.
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Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action League, called the ruling a victory thanks to a 50-year movement of anti-abortion advocates like himself and his family. The Pro-Life Action League was founded by his late father, Joseph M. Scheidler, in 1980 to seek to stop abortions in the country.
His father, Scheidler said, led the anti-abortion movement until he died in January 2021, but his mother, Ann Scheidler, and the rest of the family kept fighting.
“We thought it would only take a couple of years to bring America to its senses. We were a little bit wrong on that — it took almost 50 years — but we never gave up,” said Ann Scheidler, as she recalled how she and her husband protested and prayed at abortion clinics and protested pro-abortion fundraising events.
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But the group’s members said their job to end abortion in the state of Illinois had just begun. They said that they “expect to see devastating effects in Illinois as more and more women come here … from Missouri and Indiana and Wisconsin by their predators for quick and easy abortions at Planned Parenthood megacenters so that they can go back home to their limited abortion states.”
“My prayer is that as time unfolds and the people of Illinois see the devastation that this extreme abortion regime is enacting in our state will push back, restore parental notification, stop state tax funding of abortion,” Eric Scheidler said.
Ana Marie Avila Farias was visiting from California with her family. She decided to leave the sightseeing for another day and instead partake in the protests against the ruling. The mother of two decided to speak up during the anti-abortion speeches because “it’s the wrong messaging.”
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“It’s not a celebration. It’s decades back of regressing women’s progress in this country and no one should be celebrating this,” Avila Farias said. “I’m here for all the women, in particular for my daughter here, to fight for her civil liberties and her rights in this country.”
Tom Olp, a Chicago-based lawyer in the anti-abortion movement, approached Avila Farias.
“I believe in free speech, but it’s very impolite to not let other people speak,” Olp said. “They can hold their own rally. But to interfere with free speech that’s not a good thing.”
While the anti-abortion group celebrates the victory, Avila Farias assures that the battle between women and their allies to reverse the ruling is just beginning.
“Women are going to overturn this. Watch!” she yelled at the group. “You’re a white male hurting people of color in this country.”
