More than 180 people have been arrested near the US Supreme Court in Washington, including Democratic lawmakers, during a protest in support of abortion rights.
Hundreds of people marched to court on Thursday and briefly halted traffic in response to
US Capitol Police said they took 181 people away for blocking an intersection on a street that runs alongside the courthouse. Among them was the candidate for Congress Brittany Ramos DeBarroswho is running for a House seat in the borough of Staten Island in New York, according to a statement from his campaign.
“I’m here to make sure that every woman in every state in this country has the right to an abortion,” the rep said.
Others briefly held up a green banner on Constitution Avenue, a major thoroughfare in Washington, which read “We will not back down.” The demonstrators chanted: “We want justice. We want it now.
Actress Busy Philipps and #MeToo activist Tarana Burke were among those leading the crowd that marched to and around the Supreme Court.
Police created a bicycle barrier surrounding protesters sitting at an intersection and began arresting people just after noon.
Protesters rallied in support of abortion rights after the June 24 Supreme Court overturned the 1973 ruling that established a woman’s procedural right in the United States. Since then, several states have implemented so-called trigger laws that immediately ban or severely restrict abortions.
The protest coincided with a historic day for the Supreme Court as
Earlier Thursday, President
(Updates with tally of police arrests in third paragraph.)
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Katia Dmitrieva, Margaret Collins
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