Protestors Gather at Omaha City Hall after Leaked Document Indicates Overturn of Roe v. Wade

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Nebraska in partnership with other local organizations coordinated the Right to Choose Rally in less than eight hours.

On a cold, dreary Tuesday in early May, more than 100 people converged in front of Omaha City Hall to protest a leaked Supreme Court opinion indicating plans to overturn Roe v. Wade and Casey v Planned Parenthood. Both decisions have long cemented people’s right to an abortion and, if overturned, would put legislating that right squarely in states’ hands.

“As a woman, and [as] someone who loves many women who have gotten abortions, I found the court [decision] that was leaked to be an extreme step backwards,” said Creigton freshman Callaghan Cavanaugh who attended the Tuesday rally at 19th and Farnam Streets. “It terrified me.”

This past April, the Nebraska Legislature narrowly blocked a “trigger” bill that would have banned all abortions provided Congress pass anti-abortion legislation or the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. On Tuesday Speaker Mike Hilgers said he planned to organize a special session of the Legislature to “protect the unborn” in light of the leaked Supreme Court documents. Currently Nebraska allows abortion up to the 22nd week of pregnancy.

State Senator Tony Vargas was also at the rally organized by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Nebraska, American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska, I Be Black Girl and the Omaha Women’s Fund. Vargas, who is also running for Congress in Nebraska’s second district, voted against LB 933 earlier this year.

“We need solidarity, we need people showing up, we need to make sure people’s voices are heard,” Vargas said. “I wanted them [protestors] to see elected officials and people that are candidates running for office standing alongside them.”

Demonstrators also emphasized the importance of the upcoming May 10 primary as many gubernatorial and congressional candidates making abortion a prime campaign issue. Nationally, a formal Supreme Court ruling regarding Roe v. Wade is expected to be released within the next two months, only then will the holding be final.

For some in attendance, the demonstration felt like whiplash. Just a few days earlier they’d celebrated the filibuster that blocked last session’s abortion’s bill. Now those like Tani Spacher and Kathy Conlon are throwing themselves back into the fight.

“I don’t want to see things go back decades,” Spacher, a Californian native turned Nebraskan said. “It’s totally disgusting that they would even think about undoing what has taken years to accomplish. What it’s going to do to women is just unbelievable.”

If the case is overturned and the special session of the legislature is held, Spacher and Conlon plan to attend.

“I read recently that you can tell that democracy is slipping by the way women are treated,” Conlon said “That’s why we’re here.”

Photograph by Isa Luzarraga.

Originally published in The Reader.