AOC, Ilhan Omar Among Arrested at Supreme Court Protest

Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib were among the group of lawmakers, out of a total of 35 people, that were taken into custody for obstructing traffic during the demonstration. AOC, Omar and others marched alongside fellow protestors shouting, “Our body, our choice,” and, “We won’t go back,” before being escorted by away by Capitol police.

Related | How to Get an Abortion

Omar, as well as representatives for AOC, Bush, Pressley and more tweeted confirmation that they had all been arrested, voicing their support for abortion rights in the wake of the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade last month.

“Today my colleagues and I put our bodies on the line,” Omar, who had already tweeted in anticipation of being arrested, wrote, “because we will leave no stone unturned in our fight for justice.”

New York Representative Carolyn Maloney, who was among those arrested in the Democratic Women's Caucus, said in a statement, "There is no democracy if women do not have control over their own bodies and decisions about their own health, including reproductive care. I have the privilege of representing a state where reproductive rights are respected and protected — the least I can do is put my body on the line for the 33 million women at risk of losing their rights."

She continued, "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. Their ultimate goal is to institute a national ban on abortion. We will not let them win. We will be back."

Maloney and Omar are among the lawmakers working to protect access to abortion and reproductive healthcare. Eight states have outright banned abortion in almost every case, with similar legislation currently being blocked in five other states and even more looking to put various roadblocks and restrictions on folks looking to terminate a pregnancy.

Effects of the Supreme Court's ruling are already starting to be felt across the country with a woman in Texas being forced to carry a dead fetus for two weeks after her doctor declined to remove it under the state's trigger law. A Louisiana doctor was similarly told by hospital attorneys not to terminate a nonviable pregnancy and force the patient to go through "a painful, hours-long labor" after her water broke.

The Biden administration has since clarified that federal law dictates that physicians are required to provide critical care, which includes abortions in certain cases, when presented with a medical emergency. Ultimately, the power to restore the protections Roe v Wade afforded lies with Congress. So far any attempts to do so have failed in the Senate.

Photo via Getty