Thousands and thousands of protesters descended on cities across the United States on Tuesday in the wake of the leaked draft opinion obtained and published by POLITICO that showed the high court intends to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion.
From New York to Los Angeles, Madison, Wisconsin, to Orlando, Florida, Philadelphia to Denver, Seattle to Boston and right in front of the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., demonstrators took to the streets en masse to protest what could be the most significant shift in women’s reproductive rights in modern American history.
Here’s a look at what transpired nationwide Tuesday night:
“I am angry,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., told a crowd gathered in front of the Supreme Court building on Tuesday, which swelled throughout the day and into the night. “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.”
Protesters gathered outside of the high court building chanted “We won’t go back! We will fight back!” and carried signs reading “Bans off our Bodies” and “Impeach Kavanaugh,” with some demonstrating against abortion as well, though they were largely outnumbered by those protesting the high court’s draft opinion.
Warren was joined by a number of her Senate Democratic colleagues, including fellow 2020 presidential candidate 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.”
“I am angry because we have reached the culmination of what Republicans have been fighting for, angling for, for decades now,” Warren 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 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.”
In New York’s Foley Square, thousands gathered in front of the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan to demonstrate for abortion rights.
Women, men and children gathered Tuesday in a scene that evoked the massive crowds from the Women’s March in 2017, a demonstration held the day after then-President Donald Trump’s inauguration protesting some of his comments about women.
Many in the crowd wore green and held signs saying “My Body My Choice,” “We Won’t Go Back” and even signs bearing the faces of the high court’s six conservative justices — Amy Coney Barrett, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Samuel Alito, who authored the draft opinion.
Speakers at the event included New York Attorney General Letitia James, who said that she “walked proudly into Planned Parenthood” and had an abortion nearly two decades ago.
"I was just elected and I was faced with the decision of whether to have an abortion or not, and I chose to have an abortion," she said. "I walked proudly into Planned Parenthood, and I make no apologies to anyone."
“This is a call to action, this is a five-alarm fire, my friends,” she said. “This is a time to act, this is not the time to be silent, because silence is the enemy right now.”
Protests took place in other areas around the city, including Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, which has become a central location for other protests, including those for racial justice, and some in neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut.
Several hundred people protested outside Orlando City Hall on Tuesday in response to the leaked draft decision, bearing signs reading "keep your laws off my body" and "never again."
Lisa Hernandez, one of the first to arrive, told Spectrum News she was disappointed in the leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court on Roe v. Wade.
“It is really disheartening and frightening for what will happen,” Hernandez said. “Not just in Florida, but all over the country. Especially all over the South.”
As the hours wore on, more and more protesters arrived, as well as more signs being held up high.
“Abortion is freedom to live your life by your means. Abortion is freedom for a future,” Hernandez yelled into a microphone. “Abortion is freedom for you to have a future to education, for you to have a future to decide what type of career you want. To take care of your families.”
Several lawmakers and politicians at the protest said that gay marriage could be at risk next if the Supreme Court moves ahead with its decision.
When the protest ended, Hernandez expressed what she hopes was not just expressed in Orlando on Tuesday, but all across the country as well from other protests.
“Hopefully, the Supreme Court decides 'Big oops, we are actually not going to submit that decision,'” Hernandez chuckles while saying, “And we are not gong to roll back our reproductive freedom, we are not going to roll back our human rights.”
Police and protesters clashed in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday night, resulting in an officer injured, police said Tuesday.
Hundreds of people gathered and marched from outside the federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles to Pershing Square to protest.
While the protests were largely peaceful, some people in the crowd threw rocks and bottles at police, LAPD Police Chief Michel Moore.
LAPD Capt. Issac Ruiz, the incident commander at the protests, said no arrests were made.
The injured officer “was attacked by a group of agitators and struck in the head but he’s doing OK,” Ruiz told reporters.
Protesters filled the state capitol in Madison, Wisconsin, to protest for abortion rights Tuesday evening.
A sea of people crowded the State Street corner of Capitol Square, including men, women and children; Demonstrators spoke on a microphone about the importance of abortion rights and women dressed as handmaids – hearkening the dystopian Hulu series "The Handmaid's Tale" and seen at many women's rights protests in recent years – walked through the state capitol building.
Joette Peterson told Spectrum News that she used to be more politically active, but hadn’t been out protesting in about five years. This draft decision changed that.
“Freedom is our right to express ourselves, to make choices for our lives, for women to make choices for their bodies, for couples to make choices in their own bedrooms about what’s going to affect their lives,” Peterson said.
Others told Spectrum News that they had deeply personal reasons to be at the rally.
“I’m a Type 1 diabetic. I’ve been Type 1 diabetic for 20 years. If I were to get pregnant, it could easily kill me,” Carolyn Nave. “For me personally, the ability to have an abortion if I need one is incredibly important, and for millions of women across America.”
“I’m past the age of having children, and I have two children that I love very much,” said Louise Mares. “But there were times in my life if I had gotten pregnant, it would’ve been a catastrophe. The kids I have now wouldn’t exist. I would instead have had a kid who would’ve grown up in poverty.”
Spectrum News' Asher Wildman and Savanna Tomei contributed to this report.
The Associated Press and City News Service contributed to this report.