2 Protests Against Roe V. Wade Decision In Bel Air Planned This Week

BEL AIR, MD — A demonstration against the Roe v. Wade decision outside the Bel Air courthouse is planned for Monday afternoon. It is one of two this week.

Organizers say they will meet at the Bel Air District Courthouse at 2 Sound Bond Street at 4 p.m. and will protest until 6 p.m.

"Bring friends, flags, signs & purpose," organizers said in the event post on Facebook.

Another protest in the same location is slated for 4 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, June 29.

The demonstrations come on the heels of the decision by the Supreme Court of the United States to overturn the decision set by the case of Roe v. Wade.

Related: Roe V. Wade Overturned: Abortion Rights Left To States To Decide

Change stemmed from the court's ruling Friday in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which set the stage for a shift in abortion rights to a patchwork of state laws.

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Association challenged a Mississippi law banning abortions in most cases after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

The law undercuts the standard set by Roe that guarantees women access to the procedure up until the fetus is viable outside her womb, typically around 23 or 24 weeks after conception, and longer in cases where the woman's life or health is in jeopardy.

In Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court said an unwanted pregnancy could lead a woman to "a distressful life and future." In the 1992 case, Casey v. Planned Parenthood, the court upheld Roe, finding that abortion rights were necessary for "women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the nation."

Mississippi's lawyers argued that striking down Roe, and the Planned Parenthood v. Casey case that affirmed it, was the only means available to enforce the ban in Mississippi.

"Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences, and far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division," Justice Samuel Alito Jr. wrote for the majority in Friday's decision. "It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people's elected representatives."

Protests over the weekend took place in Annapolis, Baltimore, Columbia and Wheaton .

Patch editor Beth Dalbey contributed to this report.