SF Rallies For Abortion Rights

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Protesters gathered at San Francisco’s Ferry Building for one of at least four rallies planned for the city on Friday, just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a landmark ruling that for nearly a half a century provided federal protections for women’s reproductive rights.

Rallies in support of reproductive rights were planned for at least seven Bay Area cities Friday.

The Roe v. Wade Overturned: Protest to Protect the Right to Choose rally followed the court's 6-3 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a repudiation of the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and a subsequent case on fetal viability, Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

Protesters planned to march from the Ferry Building to City Hall to join a 5 p.m. rally that will be jointly held by Planned Parenthood California and the Women’s March SF.

In May, Justice Samuel Alito Jr.'s majority opinion draft was leaked to Politico, setting the stage for a seismic shift in abortion rights.

The court's three liberal justices — Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — dissented in what was the most anticipated decision of the court's current term after the leaked opinion draft. They criticized what they call the majority's "cavalier approach to overturning this Court's precedents."