Waves of demonstrations across Alabama continued on Sunday as protesters gathered to rally for action and protest the overturn of Roe V. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that allowed women around the country to receive legal abortions.
The Alabama Rally Against Injustice organized three protests in Birmingham, Montgomery, and Huntsville.
In Birmingham, protesters gathered in Kelly Ingram Park for a rally before marching to the Hugo Black Federal Courthouse. Demonstrators held colorful signs with messages such as “abort the court,” and wore t-shirts with the message ”my body, my choice.”
“I thought I was finished with this in the nineties” said one attendee named Alisa as she walked with fellow demonstrators in the park.
Organizer Karan Vance led protestors into the shade near the park pavilion, where she stood with a sign language interpreter.
“We want them to see that we will not be quiet. We will not stand idly by while rights are being taken away from people,” Vance said as the crowd erupted into applause.
“And these rights aren’t just being taken away from people, but the people who are affected the most are people of color, specifically Black women,” Vance continued. " And with that being said, I don’t want to make anybody feel left out, but since the people who are affected the most are Black women, I would like to ask that anyone that is a Black woman that would like to speak, to go ahead to line up on my left. That includes trans men as well.”
Before she introduced the leader of the march, Vance assured demonstrators the protest would be a safe space and reminded the crowd not to engage with any anti-protesters, for their own safety and the safety of others.
“That is not why we are here,” she said.
Then, activist and organizer Sherrette Spicer, widely known as Lady Freedom, stepped up to the microphone.
“I’m so proud of Birmingham. The truth is, they want to keep us apart. But we fight together. We stand together,” said Spicer. “Once again, it’s time to get somebody’s knee off our necks. It’s time to get somebody’s knee off our wombs. It’s time to get somebody’s knees off the generations behind us.”
The U.S. Supreme Court’s June 24 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade returned the legalization of abortion back to the states. That same day, a Montgomery federal judge lifted the injunction preventing a 2019 Alabama law banning abortion from going into effect. That means abortion now is illegal in Alabama, except in cases where the health of the mother is in danger.
[READ MORE ABOUT THE OVERTURN OF ROE V. WADE]
In an emotional address to the crowd, Spicer said she’s been called during her years of advocacy work to help people who were in situations “they did not choose,” including survivors of sexual assault.
“They had to make tough choices. And now someone is telling them they can’t choose,” said Spicer. “To those who say that we just want babies to die, I want them to realize that there are some people who have been raped.”
Then, Spicer asked the audience to participate.
“If you know someone who has been raped, I want you to raise your hand.”
Looking at the raised hands, Spicer issued another directive: “Now keep your hands up if that person got justice. If that person’s rapist went to jail.”
Spicer paused and took a deep breath.
“Very few hands remain. And out of the ten I know, I know (of) one that went, and he didn’t stay (in jail) the whole time he was supposed to.”
Standing on the pavilion, Spicer expressed sympathy and support for rape and sexual assault survivors, assuring them of unwavering support. She invited members of the crowd to come to the pavilion to speak. And as they formed a line, she praised the “mighty warriors and organizers” who were coming to march that morning.
“Normally we march to the BPD,” said Spicer, who has spent decades protesting and advocating for police reform. “But this time, I think we should take it to one of these federal buildings. Because BPD ain’t do this one.”
“We’re going to take it to the streets. And we’re going to put some vibrations on these federal buildings about our rights.”
For more than half an hour, demonstrators stepped forward to share personal stories and give clarion calls for action. Almost all had scathing words for the U.S. Supreme Court.
Some of the people who came forward shared stories of surviving sexual assault. One woman told the crowd she was raped by five different men before she was 21. If she had become impregnated by any of those men, she said, she would have aborted. Another demonstrator, a sixteen -year-old cancer survivor, also shared her story of sexual assault. Children, she said, should not be forced to have children. And both protesters issued similar statements: forcing rape victims to look at the child of their abusers for the rest of their lives is “sick.”
Rep. Terri Collins, the Decatur Republican who sponsored the 2019 anti-abortion bill (which was, at the time, one of the strictest in the country) said she expects no exceptions for rape or incest will be considered until Alabama’s next legislative session begins in March 2023.
In her speech to the crowd, attorney and demonstrator Pratt Austin-Trucks had words for Collins.
“I don’t know how a woman or a mom could even think about that. So please, call your legislators. Call Kay Ivey’s office. Do something. Because I don’t want my mother knowing that the rights she fought for have just gone away and aren’t coming back.”
During her speech, Austin-Trucks said she was attending the march for her 78-year-old mother and 20-year-old daughter. Austin-Trucks said that while she could drive or fly her daughter to a state like Minnesota if she ever needed an abortion, there were a lot of girls in Alabama who won’t have that option or access to care.
“I’m here to tell you. My mom, myself and my daughter will drive anyone who needs to go somewhere. Anyone who needs it deserves the right. Just call me. Call us. Until we can get this atrocity overturned. "
During her address to the crowd, Alisa talked about being married to her wife for 18 years. She also remembered the days she worked as an abortion clinic escort in the city.
“I spent most Saturdays in the 1990s as a clinic escort on the Southside, helping (women) obtain the services that they needed. And to help get what they needed,” she said. “And one thing we know is that we know what we want. We want equality, freedom, bodily autonomy, and respect. That’s not hard. But what do they want? What they want is control.”
Alisa condemned the members of the Supreme Court for saying they care about lives, while putting the lives of women in danger. If the Supreme Court cared about lives, she said, they would demand more common sense gun control.
“The second thing they say they care about is women and babies. No they don’t. We wouldn’t have any hungry children in this country if they cared about children,” she continued. “Every mother would have paid maternity leave if they cared about women and babies. Even gig workers. That would be there. They don’t care about children! That’s a lie. If they really wanted to stop abortion, you would know by their actions. What they really want is control. They’re coming after my marriage next. They are already coming after your voting rights.”
Mid-morning, Spicer started directing demonstrators to line up and march to the federal court building. Before the crowd started walking, Spicer led them in a chant, saying “Solidarity forever!”
“We’re going to make our way to the Hugo building,” said Spicer. “We’re going to end up at that building, where they made these federal decisions like taking away our federal minimum wage increase from people who really want to have a family (and) take care of it.”
Microphone and speaker in hand, Spicer led the protesters less than a mile around the corner to the Hugo Black building on 5th street, as a man in a gray shirt and sunglasses walked feet in front of them, seemingly for protection. As the crowd marched, the chants rang out:
“Whose streets? Our streets!”
“Ain’t no power like the power of the people cause the power of the people don’t stop!”
“Get your hand out my panties!”
“There’s a whole lotta money in that motherf***r,” Spicer said, pointing to the Hugo Black Courthouse as the crowd approached the side of the building. “A lotta our money.”
As the crowd came to stop on the steps of the courthouse, Spicer had one more request.
“I want y’all to join me in saying ‘no more wire hangers!’
She pointed into the crowd at an attendee holding a sign with an outline of a red hanger and the words “NEVER AGAIN” written in all capital letters.
“Y’all remember that movie when she said ‘no more wire hangers?’ ” said Spicer, referencing the infamous scene from the 1981 movie “Mommie Dearest,” where Joan Crawford berates her daughter Christina for hanging her expensive dresses on plain wire hangers.
“Y’all know what to do. I want y’all to reach into your uterus. Or wherever it would be located if you had one.”
After a countdown, the crowd screamed into the air: “No more wire hangers!”
The crowd yelled the phrase three times. One for the past, one for the present, and a final call, said Spicer, for the “girls who aren’t even born yet.”
Under the blazing sun, as more speakers addressed the crowd on the courthouse steps, Jase Fitzwater introduced himself and talked about the sexual assault he experienced as a child.
“I’m a trans man. If you probably don’t know. And I still have a uterus,” said Fitzwater.
“I have to break generational curses. And so did my mother. Because she chose to stop what was happening to me. But she almost went to jail when I was 12 years old, because the state of Alabama was not going to give me an abortion.”
“I look like a man. Some people would say a normal man. What they mean is a cis man,” Fitzwater continued. “If I were to get raped, I would be forced to carry a child. I don’t want to carry. I never wanted to carry a child. There are plenty of trans men that do. But I’m not one of them. Their right to choose should never be taken away.”
More than 100 miles away in Huntsville, at least 800 people attended the ARAI’s rally for reproductive rights at the courthouse square.
One of the speakers was a woman named Sam, who said she was a licensed professional counselor. During her speech, she told the crowd she was originally from Egypt and worked hard to become a U.S. citizen. The Supreme Court’s issue, she said, was part of a wider problem.
“It is not about our uterus. Our uterus is the weakest link. It is about our freedom. These people who keep criticizing the Taliban. Do you want to be like them?” she said, as she held the mic.
“It’s not about abortion. It’s about our freedom. Do not fall into the trap of gaslighting. Do not fall into the trap of intimidation. Do not get distracted. Do not fall into the trap of being angry. Channel that anger. We’re all here to protect this country, because this country is built on freedom. Pro life! Pro choice! Pro freedom!”
Outside of the Department of Archives in Montgomery, video from WSFA shows protestors at the ARAI rally chanting “Abortion is healthcare” and “my body, my choice.”
In Mobile, 19-year-old Madison Flowers had organized a separate protest. She relied on social media to spread the word and on Sunday, approximately 200 people gathered at Mobile’s Mardi Gras Park and marched through the streets of downtown Mobile, holding signs and chanting their support for abortion rights.
Flowers told AL.com she hopes to have more marches and rallies in the coming weeks, and she’s also angling for a crowd of 1,000 people or more.
“We woke up one day and out of nowhere, it was a leak,” said Flowers, referring to the draft opinion written in February that was leaked to Politico in early May. “And now it’s real.”
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