CLEVELAND, Ohio-Led by Women's March Cleveland, protesters shut down traffic for about an hour on Chester Avenue at East 101st Street on Cleveland's east side near Walgreens on Saturday, April 15, 2023 as part of a national demonstration in cities across the country called by Women's March National to advocate for abortion rights and to call out Walgreens for refusing to sell the abortion pill. Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell and state Rep Juanita Brent, also vice chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, joined the protesters as did workers seeking signatures over the weekend for a potential abortion ballot initiative in Ohio. Cleveland Channel 3 News of WKYC and the Call and Post Newspaper were among the media that covered the event.
Other groups assisting with the rally include RiseUp4Abortion Rights Cleveland.
At first some motorists broke through the protest line on the busy Chester Avenue as protesters chanted " No justice, no peace," My body, my choice," and a host of other chants but ultimately drivers took another street route and Cleveland police later stepped up to guide them in another direction. Women's March Cleveland head organizer Kathy Wray Coleman said the rally was one of several potential rallies planned against Walgreens for refusing to sell the abortion pill in Ohio.
Cleveland's sister rally was from noon-2 pm at 10001 Chester Avenue at Walgreens pharmacy by design because Walgreens is under fire for refusing to sell the abortion pill in Ohio and some 19 other states where GOP officials have threatened litigation. Community activists said they were rallying for reproductive rights and against a decision by an Amarillo,Texas judge that outlawed the Food and Drug Administrations's longstanding abortion pill, which is officially dubbed mifepristone. While a Washington State federal judge subsequently issued a counter ruling in support of the abortion pill, women's rights advocates say that they took to the streets this pastweekend to fight for reproductive and Civil Rights for women and to try to stem the tide of attacks on women's reproductive rights.
More specifically on the Texas ruling, Trump-appointed federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk has withdrawn the FDA's approval for mifepristone, one of the pills used in the medication abortion regimen. This medication has been used safely and very effectively for decades. the judge's ruling, however, is stayed per a Supreme Court ruling issued last week.
The two countering abortion pill rulings come on the heels last summer of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v Wade and relegate the authority to either restrict or outright outlaw abortion to the country's respective state legislatures, most of them Republican- dominated general assemblies.
Activists women, particularly of greater Cleveland, and Cleveland, a largely Black major American city, say that fascist judges like Kacsmaryk should keep their hands off abortion medication mIifepriston and other FDA approved reproductive medications. To date more than 14 states have criminalized abortion, including Ohio. Per its state legislature it has a six-week abortion ban that is on hold after a court ruling that is being challenged by state attorney general Dave Yost, a Republican.
Women's March Cleveland organizers say that absent major public outcry such a decision in Texas would likely be upheld by the same conservative-leaning Supreme Court that overturned Roe v Wade and that given that medication abortions make up more than half of all abortions in the country such a ban would be catastrophic. To the contrary, pro-life supporters say their cause is viable too. Nonetheless, it is clear that the fight for abortion access in America is ongoing, and contentious at best.
