PORTLAND, Maine — More than 300 protestors marched down Congress Street from the federal courthouse to Portland City Hall on Tuesday evening, expressing their disapproval of a recently leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that hinted at the potential overturning of Roe v. Wade.
If overturned, Roe v. Wade would leave abortion regulations up to individual states.
Planned Parenthood organized the protest and told NEWS CENTER Maine it only expected a few dozen people and for the protest to only last 30 minutes. The demonstration went on for more than an hour and saw hundreds of people.
Eunice Nuna joined the protest. She is the executive director of Wounded Healers International, which aims to help victims of sexual violence.
"I was here last year doing the same rally and asking us to please allow us to own our body, because this is all some of us have. I speak on behalf of many asylum seekers like me, having people to make choices for us, that's very wrong," Nuna said. "It's very, very frustrating for me."
Other protestors said they were waiting for a Portland demonstration when they saw the article from Politico.
"We need to show up for our people. You're messing with people's rights here," Portland resident Lucas Suarez said.
"It's health care, and we have to show up for our people. Everyone that I know is here that I want to be here," Madeline Weber of Portland said. "As someone who has personally experienced a lot of things, I don't want anyone's rights being stripped away, especially my own."
On Tuesday, Karen Vachon, executive director of Maine Right to Life, told NEWS CENTER Maine, "we uphold the sanctity of human life, from womb to tomb."
Vachon said overturning Roe v. Wade would be good for Maine.
"We are one of four states that actually has more deaths per year than births, and sadly we abort over five babies each day in the state of Maine," Vachon said.