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Pro-choice advocates hoping people vote, not lose hope

SCOTUS protest
Posted at 10:45 PM, Jun 24, 2022
and last updated 2022-06-25 10:49:47-04

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The backlash against a Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe V. Wade and pave the way for states to ban abortions was swift and fierce in Las Vegas as hundreds of pro-choice advocates rallied across the city from the Lloyd D. George Federal Courthouse to The Las Vegas Strip.

Judy Lewis brought her 88 year old mother Leona Erickson to the rallies because both remember the days before Roe protected abortion federally.

"I woke up this morning to granddaughters calling me," Lewis said, ":and I laid in bed and cried and couldn't talk for about an hour."

Lewis said her daughters who live in Tennessee are already making plans to move to Las Vegas where abortion is protected by state law.

"We've already been through this," she said. "The women of the United States of America have no rights again."

Nevada Senator Jacky Rosen called on people to be energized by the decision as it comes in the middle of the mid-term elections.

"I think this will motivate people to go to the polls because people don't want to see an erosion of their rights."

Because it took more than 50 years to overturn Roe, advocates said the worst thing that could happen would be for pro-choice protesters to lose hope.

In the crowd of hundreds, despair was common though, as KTNV asked people whether their efforts would make a difference.

"No. I think, I think we have now made a bed, and we have to figure out how to get out of it," said Emily Rose.

Lewis had a darker perspective.

"I don't expect it to be reversed," she said. "Period."