JEFFERSON CITY - Abortion-rights advocates gathered in Jefferson City Sunday afternoon encouraging protestors to vote, share their stories, and fight for rights they said they lost.
The protest also featured speeches from politicians Chimene Schwach, an African-American woman running for State Representative in the 47th District, and Jewel Kelly, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Missouri.
The protest brought out hundreds of people. Many carried signs, wrote on the sidewalks with chalk, and discussed about the historical overturning of Roe v. Wade.
On June 24th, the Supreme Court made the 6-3 vote to overturn the controversial law, Roe v. Wade. The decision left laws related to abortion in the hands of the states. Missouri was the first to enact its trigger law.
Missouri's trigger law outlaws abortion in the entire state with exceptions to medical emergencies for the mother like an ectopic pregnancy, preclampsia, and other extreme cases where an abortion is needed.
On the other side, some people and organizations praised the supreme court's decision. Steve Rupp, president of Missouri Right to life, wrote this statement the day SCOTUS overturned Roe v. Wade.
"Today we thank God!" Rupp wrote. "May HE be with us as we continue to defend the most precious children in this new era! Today we celebrate and then we go back to work to protect unborn babies and women from the abortion industry. May God continue to bless our work."
McCayla Montgomery, an organizer for the rally, talked about the intersectionality of the issue.
"Roe versus Wade was such a big overturn, and such a devastation to so many people, especially black, brown, and indigenous people with uteruses." Montgomery said. "It definitely hurt[s] them more than anybody else. I think Jeff City needs to come together and realize that we all need to be doing something to help everybody that is at more risk, other than just white women."
Montgomery is a human rights activist in Mid-Missouri and said she has helped organize Black Lives Matter protests and other protests concerning Roe v. Wade. She explained how she felt hearing the news that Friday.
"It was devastating. It was like a punch to the gut," Montgomery said.
Montgomery shared a variety of resources that residents of Missouri can use to be able to access healthcare including the Missouri Abortion Fund, Planned Parenthoods in neighboring states where abortion is still accessible, and the Midwest Access Coalition.
Montgomery also organized the protest alongside Alyssa Cochran, a student at the University of Missouri. Cochran spoke about what she hoped people would take away from the protest.
"I hope to let people know that we're not going to go silently," Cochran said. "We're definitely going to stand up for our rights, and we're not going to be silenced."
Cochran talked about how the protest originated from a viral Facebook post she made.
"When I first organized this, it was just a Facebook post, I didn't expect anyone to respond, I kind of thought I was alone in this," Cochran said. "I had a ton of people reach out to me offering help, offering assistance... it felt really amazing just to know that there are several people who want to be heard and want to make their voices heard and that they also are not going to sit silently."
The Facebook post got over a thousand impressions on Facebook, with over 400 people stating they were going.
Cochran believes that Missouri's government is focusing on the wrong things and that there are bigger issues to be figured out.
"I feel like we're focusing on forcing people to give birth, when we don't have money, we don't have formula, we don't have housing, people are going to die," Cochran said. "I think they just don't understand the consequences of forcing people to give birth."
As a Missouri native, Cochran is proud of her roots. But, she said feels that her state is going backwards. She shared her sentiments on what she hopes people take away from the protests going on nationwide.
"I just encourage people to think outside of themselves, outside of their bubble, outside of their religious beliefs, and realize that we are all just human beings trying to get by in this world. When we turn on one another and when we strip away each other's rights, that's never going to happen. We will never come together if we keep moving backwards like this."