Demonstrators gathered outside of the Supreme Court building on Tuesday in the wake of the draft opinion published by POLITICO which shows that a majority of the Supreme Court appears poised to strike down the landmark 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which guarantees the right to an abortion nationwide.
Protesters on both sides of the abortion issue squared off in front of the judiciary building, some carrying signs which said “Bans off our Bodies” and “Impeach Kavanaugh,” with others carrying ones reading “Ignore Roe” and “In God We Trust.”
The two groups were surrounded by police barricades as police built a metal fence surrounding the building, barring access to the high court.
Plans for similar rallies and demonstrations nationwide — from New York to Austin, Los Angeles to Florida — were being shared on social media throughout Tuesday as the fallout from the report continued.
While the crowds in front of the Supreme Court building were relatively light earlier Tuesday, the crowds grew throughout the day and swelled to hundreds of people, largely abortion rights advocates — and they were joined by a number of notable figures, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who delivered a fiery speech in defense of abortion rights.
“I am angry,” she said, to cheers from the crowd. “I am angry because an extremist United States Supreme Court thinks that they can impose their extremist views on all of the women of this country — and they are wrong.”
“I am angry because we have reached the culmination of what Republicans have been fighting for, angling for, for decades now,” she said, before pledging: “We are gonna fight back.”
Warren lamented the fact that overturning Roe v. Wade will disproportionately impact poorer women, saying that "wealthy women can get on an airplane and fly to another state, they can fly to another country" in order to have an abortion.
"This will fall on the poorest women," she said. "This will fall on the young women who have been abused who are victims of incest, this will fall on those who have been raped. This will fall on mothers who are already struggling to work three jobs to be able to support the children they have."
“I have seen the world where abortion is illegal,” Warren concluded. “And we are not going back. Not ever.”
In a video posted to social media after her remarks in front of the Supreme Court building, a visibly angry and shaken Warren spoke to reporters and reiterated her fury about the draft report.
“I am angry,” she said. “Angry and upset and determined. The United States Congress can keep Roe vs. Wade the land, they just need to do it.”
“The Republicans have been working toward this day for decades,” she continued. “They have been out there plotting, carefully cultivating these Supreme Court justices so they could have a majority on the bench who would have accomplished something that the majority of Americans do not want.
“Sixty-nine percent of people across this country — across this country — red states and blue states, old people and young people, want Roe v. Wade to maintain the law of the land,” she said. “We need to do that and we have a right.”
“Extremists, we’ve heard enough from the extremists,” she said, as an anti-abortion protester attempted to interrupt her. “And we’re tired of it.”
Warren was not the only lawmaker who attended the protest; A number of her Senate Democratic colleagues, including fellow 2020 presidential contender Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii.
Klobuchar said that her "Republican colleagues … have gone against the grain of the American people, they have gone against the grain of the women of America.”
The lawmakers also joined Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on the steps on the U.S. Capitol; He pledged to hold a vote to codify Roe v. Wade in the Senate, despite not having the votes to overcome the 60-vote legislative filibuster.
“It is our intention for the Senate to hold a vote on legislation to codify the right to an abortion in law," he said.
Blumenthal, who was a clerk to Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, who authored the 1973 Roe v. Wade majority opinion, posed a question to Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch.
"We asked every one of the last three appointees on Roe: Do you respect established precedent?" Blumenthal said. "And every one of them said, 'We respect established precedent.' My question for those ... behind those walls and pillars is did you lie to us? And how do you expect the American people to respect you if you lied to them?"