On Sunday, a group of independently organized students marched in a loop from the amphitheater at the center of campus to the Rock and back in protest of the leaked Supreme Court opinion which, if unchanged, would overturn Roe v. Wade and could trigger a ban on abortion in the state of Tennessee.
Organizers said they planned the protest for Mother’s Day to pay tribute to the generations of women who have had the right to choose whether to carry a pregnancy to term in the nearly 50 years since Roe.
On the night of May 2, Politico published a leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito which would overrule Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion on Constitutional grounds, as well as Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a 1992 decision which affirmed the right to abortion and established the undue burden standard for restricting abortion access.
The Supreme Court affirmed Tuesday that the draft is authentic.
Students said the extremely rare leak, which has set off a wave of protests around the nation and will be subject to an official investigation by the court, came as a shock.
Eileen Reardon, a freshman animal science major, attended the protest in response to hearing the news last week.
“I heard that night. I was at a friend’s birthday party and it was a really big downer, completely destroyed the mood,” Reardon said. “My first thought was shock and despair truly and then my second thought was just absolute outrage.”
Reardon was accompanied at the protest by her dog Cooper, who wore a sign around his neck that said “Pro-Choice Pup.” The pair marched with the rest of the protestors from the HSS amphitheater to the Rock, which they painted with sayings like “Protect Roe v. Wade,” “No Forced Birth,” and a painting of a coat hanger surrounded by the words “Never Again,” a common reference to the state of abortion in American before Roe v. Wade.
In the leaked opinion, Alito writes that “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” and argues that the right to an abortion is not found in the Constitution and should be turned over to each state.
Alito is reportedly joined in the opinion by four other Republican-appointed justices, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. The leaked opinion reflects the significant alteration to the court’s make-up under President Donald J. Trump, who appointed Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett.
The court’s Democratic-appointed liberal wing, composed of Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, are reportedly drafting one or more dissenting opinions, according to a source for Politico.
It is unclear how Chief Justice John Roberts will vote, or whether he will draft his own opinion or join one already written. Roberts expressed anger over the leak, calling it an “egregious breach of trust” and ordered an investigation.
The leak has exposed what is normally an intensely concealed process of deliberation and voting to the outrage of a section of the American public. As if to preempt what once seemed unthinkable, Alito wrote in the opinion that no public reaction would change the court’s decision.
“We do not pretend to know how our political system or society will respond to today’s decision overruling Roe and Casey. And even if we could foresee what will happen, we would have no authority to let that knowledge influence our decision,” Alito wrote.
The opinion asserts that the public’s reaction to the issue would not influence how the court votes. Reardon, however, still believes that protests like the one on Sunday are vital to cultivating change to laws on reproductive rights.
“I think things like this are really important no matter how big or small they are, because they bring attention to the issue. They’re showing our other fellow students that we are here, we are talking about it and we’re on their side,” Reardon said. “This is one of those things that I’m extremely passionate about, like reproductive rights and keeping religion out of lawmaking.”
Tennessee is one of 13 states that have passed so-called “trigger laws,” near bans or total bans on abortion that could go into effect if Roe is overturned. The state has gotten national media attention in recent weeks for its anti-abortion rights legislation.
Students march on Mother's Day in protest of the leaked Supreme Court opinion draft which would overrule Roe v. Wade and trigger abortion bans across the country.
On Thursday, Gov. Bill Lee signed into law a bill that places criminal penalties on the distribution of abortion pills through the mail and requires that patients seeking abortions be examined in person. The bill, which will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2023, also requires doctors to “inform the patient that the patient may see the remains of the unborn child in the process of completing the abortion.”
Maya Rao, a senior studying geography and sustainability, helped organize the campus protest, following the lead of freshman political science major Erin Gwydir. Rao said the trigger laws that would ban abortion in Tennessee could also lead to other restrictive reproductive legislation. She is frightened of what could happen if legislation begins to impact access to contraceptives.
“Especially as college students, you know, we’re living such busy lives, and having a child right now, I don’t know if I could do it,” Rao said. “So, I think it’s really important that we do get access to abortion, access to birth control.”
Michael Adriaanse, a sophomore electrical engineering major, also assisted in organizing the protest and said that although they planned it on Mother’s Day in honor of women, they recognize that reproductive justice impacts many types of people.
“It’s very important that we as a community come together and unite behind issues and really fight because this is a constant struggle,” Adriaanse said. “It’s a struggle for not only women, but it’s a struggle for trans people, non-binary people. It’s a struggle for Black people, it’s a struggle for brown people. It’s a struggle for everyone, and we don’t wanna waste a moment.”
Rao and Adriaanse said they had fewer attendees than people who joined their GroupMe for organizing the event. Despite that, they were pleased with the turnout and with the overall safety. They said they received death threats online leading up to the protest, but the only disruption at the event was a single anti-abortion rights counter-protestor.
“Things went very well compared to some of the worst we planned for,” Adriaanse said.
Even with finals approaching and weekend plans, Adriaanse said that taking time to come out to the event was vital to actually trying to spark change in reproductive health legislation.
“It’s important right now that we build these structures and we come together as these communities and we unite and fight against our oppressors,” Adriaanse said. “This is something that’s important to us, and we all wake up every day and we dream of that better world. But this is where the fight for that better world starts, down here on the streets.”
Senior Sarah Greene and junior Isabel Whelan are independently hosting a “Study Day Sit In” on Wednesday, May 11 at 12 p.m. on HSS lawn, where students are encouraged to study outside and bring signs to show support for reproductive rights.
Students, including one anti-abortion rights counter protestor, march from the Rock to the HSS amphitheater on May 8, 2022 in protest of the leaked Supreme Court opinion draft which would overrule Roe v. Wade and trigger abortion bans across the country.
