Bay Area Rallies Against 'Second-Class' Ruling

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Susan Wheeler knew it was coming, but it still hit her pretty hard.

The 80-year-old San Francisco woman's day began with a 7:30 a.m. call from her son on the East Coast telling her "they've destroyed Roe."
So despite being hobbled by injuries she suffered in a recent fall, when Wheeler learned protests were planned, she made a sign, grabbed her walking stick, and hopped on a Muni train to San Francisco's Civic Center, where a crowd well into the thousands gathered to protest the U.S. Supreme Court striking down a landmark ruling that for nearly a half a century provided federal protections for women's reproductive rights.

"I never, ever thought this would happen," she said. "I'm furious, that's why I had to come out tonight. I couldn't just stay at home."
"I remember back before there was (legal) abortion and it was terrible. I never had one, but I know people who did, and it was the most traumatic thing they ever did in their lives."

Several smaller rallies held in the city that started earlier marched through city streets with police escorts who brought them to Civic Center Plaza for a larger rally co-organized by Planned Parenthood and the Women's March.
Protests were held nationwide Friday after the court's largely expected 6-3 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a repudiation of the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and a subsequent case on fetal viability, Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

In May, Justice Samuel Alito Jr.'s majority opinion draft was leaked to Politico, setting the stage for a seismic shift in abortion rights.
"I knew it was coming, but it really hit me when I was driving in the Sunset and I saw lots of people walking around and I thought probably half of them are now second-class citizens," she said.

"I feel like I'm wearing second-class citizen badge."
Wheeler was treated as a celebrity by many she encountered among a mostly younger crowd in which few appeared to have experienced life before Roe as adults. Some asked to have their picture taken with her.
She tried to inject some hope to some of the shocked, angry and despondent protesters she encountered.
"Just make sure you all vote," she told them as they marched on.
San Francisco held at least four organized rallies Friday, one of which started at the Ferry Building and was followed by a march up Market Street to Civic Center Plaza.

Ari, a Concord-area high school student who didn't want her full name published, was on Market Street cheering on the protesters with her father, Mathew.
"I was furious," Ari said of her first reaction to Friday's ruling.
"This is s not normal. It's not human. It's not human to treat women like they're nothing."
Alex W., a 30-year-old San Francisco man, was among those marching.
"I think it's important to speak up," he said.

"In America right now guns have more rights than women … so, I think it's important to come out, be loud and show up when it's time to vote."
Zee Zaldivar, an Albany woman who is originally from Fairfield, said Friday's protest was the first she's ever attended.
"I felt that it was really important to be here," she said.
"Whether people are willing to admit it or not, if they really were pro-life, they would help you take care of your child, but overwhelmingly they don't."
Wheeler is no stranger to political activism. She was a UCLA student when Robert Kennedy was assassinated in 1968.

But in her view, even the turbulent 1960s was very different than the moment America finds itself.
"The anger in this country is so frightening," she said. "I certainly think under (former President Donald) Trump a lot of anger was legitimized."
She remains hopeful that lawmakers will eventually codify women's reproductive rights, but she acknowledged she's concerned that many younger people she knows don't seem to get the magnitude of the moment.
"I just hope we can rise up as a country," she said, "and vote the bums out."