Capitol reactions: Hundreds of people flock to Frankfort to protest overturn of Roe v Wade

Kentuckians continued to react Sunday to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, with hundreds of people gathering outside the Capitol. 

Katima Smith-Willis, a community organizer in Frankfort, said the impact of the decision on Black people inspired her to organize the protest. 

"We've always been the stepping stool for America," she said. 

The Supreme Court reversed the landmark 1973 decision that established abortion as a constitutional right after a 6-3 ruling was released Friday, ending access to abortion in Kentucky and more than a dozen other states. 

A "trigger law" put in place by the Kentucky General Assembly in 2019 placed an immediate ban on abortions in the Commonwealth once Roe v. Wade was struck down. The procedure can now only be performed in the commonwealth in circumstances where the procedure saves the life of a patient or prevents a disabling injury. 

Reactions and updates from Louisville:Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade abortion ruling

Smith-Willis said the decision is indicative of America's views on those who can bear children, especially about Black people, who are three times more likely to get an abortion than white people, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

White women had the lowest abortion rate, 6.6 abortions per 1,000 people, and Black women had the highest rate, 23.8 abortions per 1,000 women, among the 30 areas that reported race by ethnicity data for 2019. 

"They don't care about me, they don't care about my sister, they don't care about my friends. They don't care about anybody in my life, especially Black women," she said. 

Other Black women have paved the way for Smith-Willis' activism, she said. She said her grandmother is angry at the ruling and expected Smith-Willis to follow a path toward activism. 

The event, coordinated solely by Smith-Willis, was organized via Facebook and word-of-mouth, she said. On Sunday, more than 500 people had responded to Smith-Willis' call to action online. 

Smith-Willis said people are overlooking the underlying issue. 

"Women are going to die," she said. 

Abortion isn't about killing or sin to Smith-Willis. It's about saving lives. Smith-Willis is a parent with a history of miscarriages and who had difficulty giving birth to her son. She said the overturn of Roe v. Wade has affected her plans for the future. 

"I don't want to get pregnant knowing that I can't have that option on the table if something happens to me," she said. 

Smith-Willis isn't alone in her sentiments about the Supreme Court's ruling. Gabby Tucker, of Campbellsville, who planned on attending Sunday's protest, told The Courier Journal the decision is affecting all women. 

"It’s not just about abortion. It’s about our right to choose," Tucker said. "This is going to kill millions of women."

When asked what the ruling represented to her, Tucker said it demonstrated that "the Supreme Court doesn’t respect women." 

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Tucker, like Smith-Willis, said she wants her voice to be heard.

"I just want the government to know that we will not stand for this. That we’re here standing in solidarity against it," she said.

Some state leaders and candidates have echoed similar sentiments as Smith-Willis and Tucker. 

U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, Kentucky's lone Democrat in Congress, wrote in a statement that the judges in favor of the ruling "used their ill-gotten power to strip away women's constitutional right to bodily autonomy and rob them of personal choice."

Morgan McGarvey, who hopes to replace Yarmuth in November, said Kentucky's trigger law is "irresponsible and extreme" and called the ruling an "extreme deprivation of rights for women in this country."

Craig Greenberg, the Democratic mayoral candidate, also spoke on the topic at a protest in Louisville on Friday. 

"We need to work together to change the trajectory of our future history so that ... women have the right to all medical decisions and all of us have a right to privacy," he said. 

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Smith-Willis urged others to join her in action. 

"We got to keep it going. This is just the beginning. We got a long fight ahead of us," she said. 

Contact reporter Rae Johnson at RNJohnson@gannett.com. Follow them on Twitter at @RaeJ_33.