CLEVELAND — Hundreds of protesters gathered in Downtown Cleveland Saturday to rally in favor of abortion rights.
The "Bans Off Our Bodies Rally" at Willard Park was hosted by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio and comes roughly a month before the United States Supreme Court is set to issue its opinion in a case that could drastically change the future of abortion in the country. A recently leaked draft opinion suggested the court could be preparing to overturn Roe v. Wade, but no decision is final at this time.
Multiple states have already passed "trigger laws" that could either drastically restrict or virtually ban abortion altogether if Roe v. Wade is overturned. Ohio currently outlaws most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and has also passed a law being challenged in court that would ban them following detection of a fetal heartbeat, a law that could essentially become active should SCOTUS rule against Roe.
"Access to abortion is being directly stripped away from millions of people who may seek access to abortion right now," Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio said in a statement. "As we face these attacks in the states on abortion and await the decision from the Supreme Court on Jackson Women's Health Organization (JWHO) v. Dobbs we must make the message clear that we will not stand for these bans."