Thousands March Across the Country Rallying for Reproductive Justice

Folks from the LGBTQ community joined thousands in cities around the United States on Saturday rallying for abortion access and reproductive justice with the Women’s March.

The protests follow last month’s controversial Senate Bill 8 out of Texas, which proceeded to ban on abortions following six weeks of pregnancy, or nearly all abortions, statewide as the most restrictive abortion law in the country.

While some are quick to continue labeling the battle for reproductive justice as a “women’s issue,” many LGBTQ folks showed up to marches throughout the country to further emphasize that these issues, like the recent Texas legislation, don’t only affect cis women and are LGBTQ issues as well.

Schuyler Bailar, a transgender athlete and activist, spoke at the march in Washington, D.C. to give folks that very reminder:

“I am a transgender man, which means that although I am a man, I was assigned female at birth, which means that I have a uterus. Which means that I could get pregnant. Which means that I could need an abortion,” he says. “I am here to remind you to make it absolutely clear that people of all genders can have abortions, and people of all genders should have safe and legal access to abortions.”

He adds, “This is a women’s issue, and it is also a transgender man’s issue. It is also a nonbinary person’s issue. It is also a genderqueer, genderfluid, transmasculine person’s issue. This is about all of us.”

Kierra Johnson, executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, also emphasized how the fight for reproductive justice has never been solely about abortion, but about seeking freedom from a State that exerts control over the bodies of its citizens in a recent op-ed for LGBTQ Nation.

“Each of us lives an intersectional life where our identities are perceived in different ways and people who hold multiple marginalized identities face tremendous discrimination and barriers to healthcare simply because of who we are,” Johnson says. “The ’overlap’ of reproductive rights and queer rights is as real as the women who are denied bodily autonomy for either—or both—identities they hold … We are all in this struggle together—to win, we must be.”

In Colorado, thousands gathered at the Capitol October 2 in support of reproductive freedom for all. They were joined by Congresswoman Diana DeGette and Vicki Cowart, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, who spoke on the steps of the capitol building, The Denver Channel reports.

“We have got to make sure that Roe v. Wade, which has been the law of the land for almost 50 years, stays safe and stays that way,” Cowart said Saturday.

Currently, the U.S. Department of Justice is suing Texas, contesting the legality of SB 8 in reference to the precedent set by Roe v. Wade, a 1973 ruling which gave people the right to access abortion legally all across the country.

Photo courtesy of Emery Love