Abortion rights protesters outside the Supreme Court in DC
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)Protests have continued across the US in anger over the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse abortion rights.
At one demonstration, a Rhode Island police officer was accused of punching a woman on Friday. He has since been charged, said the authorities.
Protests have been held in New York, Alabama, Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle and outside the Supreme Court in Washington, DC among others locations.
In Phoenix, Arizona, police fired tear gas at abortion rights protesters outside the Senate on Friday.
“Earlier tonight, a crowd of protesters were pounding on the glass doors of the Senate building. Part of a door was broken. Tear gas was deployed," a police spokesperson told NBC News. He said that no arrests were made.
Those attending Pride marches across the US have also expressed outrage at the court’s decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion access.
Parades in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle and Denver followed protests in some of the same cities in protest at the court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade.
“This march is going to have more of a serious tone than celebratory, and I don't think that's a bad thing at all,” said Krystal Marx, executive director of Seattle Pride, which held its parade on Sunday.
In New York City, representatives of the abortion rights group Planned Parenthood were cheered as they took part in a parade in Manhattan.
The marchers held pink signs that read "Together. We fight for all."
“Everybody please scream for Planned Parenthood!" an announcer called over a loudspeaker, while the crowd responded: “We won't back down!”
LGBT groups fear that the decision to overturn Roe could herald an attempt by the court to overturn other precedents, such as rulings guaranteeing the right to marry to same-sex couples.
“The anti-abortion playbook and the anti-LGBTQ playbook are one and the same. Both are about denying control over our bodies and making it more dangerous for us to live as we are,” Sarah Kate Ellis, CEO of LGBTQ advocacy organization GLAAD, said in a statement.
Patrick Smith, who attended a Pride Parade in Houston, Texas, said: “The government should stay out of our private lives.
“Women went first. I fear what could happen to us too.”
At San Francisco's Pride parade, people held signs that read "Abort the Court," "Protect trans youth," and organisers led a chant of "Get your laws off our bodies."
“It feels like there’s a cloud over everybody who has a uterus,” said Maya Reddick, a high school student who attended the parade with friends.
She held a sign that said “reproductive rights are human rights”.
