ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — Abortion-rights demonstrators took to the streets of Rock Island and Davenport Monday to share their frustrations about the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Over 100 people were at the march.
"We wanted to organize today to show that this is a form of protest, and they're not going to stop," said protest organizer Savanna Means. "I don't care if it's a Monday in the middle of the day, women are not going to take being put down and being told how to regulate our own bodies."
Demonstrators met at Schwiebert Park before marching across the Centennial Bridge and throughout downtown Davenport.
"I have a daughter, I had her in August of 2020," said Addison Crowley from Dewitt, Iowa. "I think it's important that she grows up in a place where she has a right to choose what she wants to do with her body, and she gets to see mom go out and protest for her rights and myself as well."
One of the main messages at the protest was to get out and vote, both in the upcoming June 28 primary in Illinois and in November.
"Speak to your representative. Ask them to help our siblings in other states because, we in Illinois, nothing really big is gonna happen here," said Sherrard, Illinois resident Aubri Lane. "But right across the river, we're gonna have people, you're gonna have family, you're going to have friends who are being affected. And that is something we can help."
Abortion is legal in Illinois, as well as in Iowa currently. However, on June 17, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled abortion is not a fundamental right in the state, clearing the way for state lawmakers to further limit or ban abortion. It reversed a decision made by the court four years ago that guaranteed the right to the procedure under the Iowa constitution.
"Quad City residents will be affected but not as much as people who live in middle Iowa, middle Indiana or middle Nebraska," Means said. "Those are the people who are going to be affected when they're three plus more hours away. We statistically know that abortions happen a bunch with women of lower income and women of lower income don't have the money to travel to get one."
"Abortion will be gotten by women no matter what," Lane said. "It's just how safe it is and whether or not the women can survive. We can't let clumps of cells have more rights than human beings with lives, and meaning and purpose in life."