The law has come down hard on at least 17 Democratic lawmakers, which would also be including prominent progressives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, who were arrested and detained at an abortion rights protest which had been held outside the Supreme Court in Washington on Tuesday.
The United States Capitol police had reported on Twitter that the demonstrators had blocked traffic on a nearby road and had also been given three warnings before officers made the arrests.
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“We made a total of 35 arrests for Crowding, Obstructing or Incommoding,” the police said. “That arrest number includes 17 Members of Congress.”
The small demonstration came three weeks after a controversial ruling by the Supreme Court that overturned the 1973 landmark decision of Roe v. Wade, which had guaranteed women’s access to abortion.
“Today I was arrested while participating in a civil disobedience action with my fellow Members of Congress outside the Supreme Court,” Omar, a representative from Minnesota, said on Twitter.
“I will continue to do everything in my power to raise the alarm about the assault on our reproductive rights!” she tweeted.
Representative Carolyn Maloney of New York was also arrested, and issued a statement saying, “There is no democracy if women do not have control over their own bodies and decisions about their own health, including reproductive care.”
“The Republican Party and the right-wing extremists behind this decision are not pro-life, but pro-controlling the bodies of women, girls, and any person who can become pregnant.”
Footage from the protest showed Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, and others being led away, not in handcuffs, and waving to supporters.
In another report, the World Health Organisation, WHO on Wednesday warned that the US Supreme Court’s ruling which has put an end to the nationwide right to abortion risked having a detrimental impact far beyond the United States.
‘The decision by the top US court to eliminate 50 years of constitutional protections for abortion rights was referred to as ‘a setback’ by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organisation.
No fewer than eight conservative-led US states have moved quickly to outlaw abortion, with many of them only allowing exceptions in life-threatening situations. Within a few weeks, a comparable number is anticipated to follow suit.
Speaking to reporters from the UN health agency’s headquarters in Geneva, Tedros voiced alarm that a country as influential as the United States would move ‘many years backwards’ on the issue.