Last Friday, the United States Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark case which established the federal constitutional right to an abortion. Abortion rights are now left to the states to decide, with some states already banning or restricting access to an abortion.
In response to the Supreme Court’s decision, demonstrations have taken place across the United States. The “We Won’t Go Back” rally in downtown Fort Walton Beach brought in over 100 demonstrators.
“Reproductive rights is the ability to choose for yourself. It’s my body, I can do what I want with it, it’s not anyone else's business."Selena of Fort Walton Beach
“I think the separation of the church and state was put in place for a reason,” said Katalina Pho of Andalusia, Alabama. “I think it's important that that remains a thing, or becomes a thing again because it’s really unfair for people to push their religions on other people.”
“If you have an opinion, you’re more than welcome to have that opinion, but you don’t get to put your choice to me,” said Hannah of Fort Walton Beach. “It is my choice to do what I chose to do.”
“I believe that if we really just were worried about the lives of women, or people in general, then we would give them a safe option instead of pushing them into dangerous situations that they will inevitably seek out anyways,” said Ansley Montgomery of Andalusia, Alabama.
“If God gave me free will, so should my body,” said Scarlett of Fort Walton Beach.
“Reproductive rights, to me, means the most basic tenets of human rights,” said Grant of Fort Walton Beach “We’ve had over fifty years of legislation settled in the court on this, the justices that got appointed during the Trump administration were appointed under the disguise that they respected this as settled law, and now they’ve gone against their word that they swore under oath. They completely bashed the rights of women across the country, and it’s not going to stop with this.”
“Reproductive rights are human rights, they’re disability rights, they’re women’s rights, they’re rights for non-binary, they’re rights for everybody,” said Megan Sedor of Niceville. “Roe v. Wade isn’t just about abortions, it covers a lot of things. If they can overturn that, they can overturn anything they want.”
“If we really want to help women have an actual choice between having their child or having an abortion, whatever it may be, we need to be sure that we look at other areas of problems and fix those first. Making it illegal isn’t going to make it go away, taking care of the problems that cause people to be in that situation, that’s what will help.”Anne Borella of Niceville
Through the Lens is a photo essay series from WUWF Public Media
