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Women’s March protesters to risk arrest near White House

Alejandro Alvarez | aalvarez@wtop.com

July 9, 2022, 6:31 AM

Demonstrators with the Women’s March plan to risk arrest outside the White House in a sit-in Saturday afternoon, pressuring the Biden administration to protect abortion rights under federal law.

When the Women’s March rallied in the nation’s capital two months ago, its organizers promised a “summer of rage” on word the Supreme Court stood poised to upend a decades-old legal precedent protecting abortion access. On Saturday, its organizers seek to follow through on that promise with a tactic the Women’s March has rarely turned to: Risking arrest en masse.

“We will not be silent. We will not be ignored. And we will not let politicians play games with our lives and our futures,” read an invite on the Women’s March website. “If our leaders won’t take action, we will.”

Up to 1,000 people are expected to attend according to a public gathering permit from the National Park Service, although not all will risk arrest. The Women’s March will rally in Franklin Square from around 10 a.m. to noon before headed to Lafayette Square for what the permit describes as “a free speech demonstration calling for increased access to abortion and a rejection of the overturn of Roe v. Wade.”

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Alejandro Alvarez
Alejandro Alvarez joined WTOP as a digital reporter and editor in June 2018. He is a writer and photojournalist focusing on politics, political activism and national affairs, with recent multimedia contributions to Reuters, MSNBC and PBS.

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