Group supporting reproductive, LGBTQ+ rights plans to march at Democratic National Convention in Chicago
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Supporters of reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights announced this week that they plan to march at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this year.
Representatives from Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws were among the first to file for march permits.
The group plans to march on Sunday, Aug. 18, as delegates gear up for the convention.
"We will be there out in the streets to greet them with our loud and clear message – our bodies and lives are under attack by unjust laws across the United States, including right here in Illinois," Linda Loew, co-founder of Chicago For Abortion Rights and a spokeswoman for Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws, said in a news conference. "Despite the fact that the majority of Americans support the right to safe, legal, and accessible abortion and full reproductive justice, as well as full rights for LGBTQ+ communities, we are experiencing escalating assaults on access to abortion."
The group is calling for national laws to replace the patchwork of state measures that in some cases restrict access to abortion and gender-affirming care.
"Ever since the right-dominated Supreme Court overturned constitutionally-protected abortion, our side has been playing whack-a-mole versus a host of gerrymandered state legislatures, a situation LGBTQ+ activists have confronted for years," Kristi Keorkunian-Rivers, a spokesperson for the Coalition and co-founder of the Chicago Chapter of Stop Trans Genocide, said in a news release. "Especially with the Supreme Court now threatening to make medication abortions much more difficult regardless of what state we live in, the time has come for national reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights legislation rather than piecemeal, state-by-state efforts that leave millions out in the cold."
The organization said equal employment and housing protection are "tenuous at best" for LGBTQ+ people in more states than not.
The group also emphasized what it called "cruel absurdities" following the Dobbs ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade – including a 10-year-old girl who had to flee Ohio for an abortion after being raped, and the Indiana Attorney General's office the launching an investigation into the obstetrician-gynecologist who performed the abortion.
The group accused "most Democratic politicians" of having allowed reproductive rights that had previously been "enshrined in Roe v. Wade to be eviscerated, ignoring or supporting legislation that made those rights a mirage for millions of people."
