Three women were arrested on the morning of Nov. 2 after interrupting oral arguments at the Supreme Court in protest of the court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Shortly after that protester was removed from the courtroom by security, a second woman reportedly rose and proclaimed: “The right to choose will not be stripped away. Women, vote for your right to choose!”
The third woman then followed suit, stating: “We will restore our right to choose. Women of America, vote!”
The justices did not acknowledge the protests.
Following the incident, a Supreme Court spokesperson, in a statement to The Epoch Times, confirmed that the protesters had been arrested and charged with violating two federal laws: making “a harangue or oration, or utter[ing] loud, threatening, or abusive language” in the Supreme Court Building, and with “demonstrating with the intent of interfering with the administration of justice or with the intent of influencing a judge in the discharge of his or her duty.”
The spokesperson added that the individuals were processed at the court and then transported to the D.C. Metro Police Department.
In June, the Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that the Constitution “does not confer a right to abortion,” overturning the precedent set decades before in Roe.
The first protester, identified as Emily Paterson of northern Virginia, stated that the reversal of Roe had left her “deeply worried about the trajectory of our democracy.”
“Abortion care is healthcare,” she contended. “We must vote in historic numbers to elect a Congress that will pass a law to protect our right to choose nationwide.”
The third protester, Nikki Enfield of Alexandria, Virginia, added: “I have always been grateful I was able to take advantage of a legal and safe abortion when I needed it, and I am appalled that this extremist Court has stripped that right away from millions of women against the will of the majority of Americans. I simply will not stand silently by in the face of this injustice.”
The court’s Dobbs ruling did not outlaw abortion in the United States. Instead, the decision returned the regulation of abortion back to individual states.
In delivering the opinion of the court, Justice Samuel Alito wrote: “The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives.”
Protests inside the Supreme Court are rare, but they do occur occasionally. In January 2015, eight individuals were removed for protesting on the fifth anniversary of the court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling about campaign financing. Also in 2015, one spectator was removed during the oral arguments of Obergefell v. Hodges—the ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationally.
