Pro-abortion activists began to assemble in cities across America on Friday afternoon to protest in response to the Supreme Court overturning Roe vs. Wade, a seminal ruling that made abortion legal nationwide in 1973.
The activists congregated in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco, as well as Chicago, Seattle, and other cities.
In the nation’s capital, people dressed like members of the far-left extremist group Antifa held signs and chanted. At one point they burned an American flag and chanted about burning cities.
In images circulating online, a burning U.S. flag can be seen on the ground next to a poster with the names of the conservative Supreme Court justices who supported the court’s opinion penned by Justice Samuel Alito.
They chanted, “If we don’t get it, burn it down,” according to Fox News. They also reportedly chanted, “Every city, every town, burn the precinct to the ground.”
A number of the protesters dressed in Antifa’s signature black, and they utilized a tactic used by Antifa to shield their faces using black umbrellas.
Antifa played a driving role in violent, fiery protests that swept America and lasted for months after the death of George Floyd in May 2020 until around the time of the general elections in November of that year, when they petered out.
According to the Wall Street Journal, protesters began to gather outside of a federal courthouse in Los Angeles around noon and in Miami they congregated in a busy part of an arts district in Wynwood.
In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul spoke at a protest in Union Square while Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) joined demonstrators in Washington.
A common sign seen at protests across the country read “bans off our bodies.”
Violent Extremists
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reportedly issued a memo on Friday to warn that government officials and judges could be at risk by violent extremists following the ruling.
