Abortion Rights Protesters Turn Out Ahead Of ‘Roevember’ Midterm Elections

With exactly a month to go before the 2022 midterm elections, abortion rights supporters showed up at venues across the country on Saturday to highlight the lightness of the issues at stake.

Control of the Senate and House, both currently held by Democrats, is seen as at stake, and with it, the future of reproductive health care in the United States.

Republican lawmakers have been taking increasingly hard lines against abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade this summer. This 1973 ruling legalized abortion nationwide. Some states, such as Texas and Oklahoma, now do not even allow abortion in cases of rape or incest; exceptions to its abortion bans can only be made in very limited circumstances to save the life of the pregnant patient. Criminal penalties in certain states mean doctors can put their freedom and livelihood at risk if they perform an abortion in a case that doesn’t conform to lawmakers’ restrictions.

In addition, a conservative movement is underway to grant rights to fetuses that would inevitably collide with women’s rights to make their own health care decisions.

With all of this in mind, protesters appeared united behind a push to get out the vote on November 8 at a series of “Women’s Wave” events organized by the Women’s March.

Some protesters came with signs next November as “Roevember”, a referendum on abortion. The abortion issue has already upended the midterm races and forced some conservative candidates to tone down their rhetoric after what has proven to be a deeply unpopular Supreme Court decision.

Check out some of the events below.