Demonstrators Make Themselves Heard on Abortion Pill Case

Bearing colorful signs and banners that read “Doctors Not Doctrine” and “Abortion is Health Care,” hundreds of activists chanted, marched and rallied for hours outside the Supreme Court starting Tuesday morning, before the justices weighed the availability of a commonly used abortion pill.

Supporters of abortion rights outnumbered those opposing abortion, but the two factions occasionally sparred with rallying calls, including over the safety of the pill, mifepristone. (Studies show that is, in fact, safe for terminating a pregnancy.)

Some had traveled across the country to demonstrate. Courtney Brown, a coffee shop owner who helped found an abortion rights group in Amarillo, Texas, where the case originated, described her town as “ground zero” in the fight over abortion.

She added, “I’m just ready to fight back because we’re so tired of having those rights stripped away.”

Circling the court were a handful of small spherical robots containing abortion pills, remotely operated and called “Roe-bots.” Potential recipients would use the “Roe-bot” to complete a telehealth consultation with a provider in a state where the pill is legal, and the machine would then dispense a pill.

Three medical students from New York accompanying the “Roe-bots” emphasized the importance of the case, as future doctors and OB-GYNs who risked facing restrictions on reproductive care.