Arkansas – On Saturday morning, three people gathered on the Arkansas State Capitol steps to celebrate the U.S. Supreme Court ruling Friday overturning Roe v. Wade in what had been advertised as one of a series of rallies at state capitols across the country.
According to Kelsey Muse, field team executive assistant with Students for Life, the organization held Life is Louder rallies at state capitol buildings across the country to show support for the court ruling and pro-life policies.
“There’s nothing in the Constitution that says abortion rights exist. That is something that you won’t see,” Muse said. “It’s not written in invisible ink. It’s not there, that they discovered in 1973.”
A crowd of about 200 abortion rights supporters gathered the day before on the steps of the Capitol to protest the decision to roll back abortion protections. Speakers implored the people in attendance to elect pro-choice candidates and donate to help Arkansans get abortions out of state.
“Replace the boys that behave badly and vote badly in this building,” said Julie McDonald, pointing at the domed capitol building behind the speakers.
According to those gathered for Saturday’s rally, they had only seen one State Capitol Police officer outside and a few police cars driving during the rally.
No counter-protesters attended.