Press Release: Abortion Rights to hold nationwide protests in solidarity with Texas on Saturday 2 October

As a result of overwhelming support reacting to the news of the law restricting abortion in Texas, Abortion Rights’ activists are coordinating solidarity marches and events all over the country, with the biggest demonstration expected in London from Trafalgar Square to the US embassy in Vauxhall.

Anti-choice laws passed anywhere, but particularly in the US, have led to an emboldening of anti-choice activists campaigning to restrict abortion law and access here, borrowing from their playbook.

Kerry Abel, Chair of Abortion Rights UK said:

“We are marching on Saturday to send a clear message that the majority of people in the UK want abortion to be available without unnecessary barrier to access. We want to show our full solidarity with Texas and to help defend Roe v. Wade.”

Deborah Frances-White, comedian and Guilty Feminist podcaster said:

“We cannot and must not force women and other pregnant people to give birth. We will not be silent while The United States of America is turned into The Divided States of Gilead. We will send a message to our sisters and siblings in Texas that we stand by their bodies and their choices. We will send a loud, powerful message to those in Poland that demand forced births and those in the UK who wish to restrict abortion rights – that we will fight! If women and people of minority genders do not even have the right to say what happens to our own uteri inside our own bodies – what do we have the right to do?”

Ends

Notes to desks:

Demonstrations have been organised in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. Contact details for organisers can be provided on request;
Media contact for comment and interviews: Kerry Abel, National Chair, Abortion Rights (07979 535242);
Abortion Rights is the only national grassroots organisation campaigning for safe, free legal abortion in England, Scotland and Wales and provide a pro-choice voice to the media;
Alliance for Choice is organising the demonstration in Belfast;
1 in 3 women will have an abortion in their lifetime, as shown by annually published statistics;
In the UK, 9 in 10 people identify as pro-choice;
Please visit our website www.abortionrights.org.uk and follow us on Twitter @Abortion_Rights, and on Instagram @Abortion_RightsUK