Tag: Roe v. Wade

Bloomington’s annual Life Chain demonstration precedes city budget decisions

Life Chain, Bloomington, Indiana 3rd Street looking west. (Oct. 2, 2022)
Life Chain, Bloomington, Indiana 3rd Street looking west. (Oct. 2, 2022)
Life Chain, Bloomington, Indiana 3rd Street looking west. (Oct. 2, 2022)
Life Chain, Bloomington, Indiana 3rd Street looking west. (Oct. 2, 2022)
Life Chain, Bloomington, Indiana 3rd Street looking west. (Oct. 2, 2022)
Counter demonstration at Woodlawn and 3rd Street, Life Chain. (Oct. 2, 2022)

On Sunday afternoon, a two-mile stretch of 3rd Street in Bloomington, from College Mall Road to College Avenue, was punctuated by clusters of people every block or so, holding signs reading “Stop Abortion Now,” “Abortion Kills Children,” or other similar statements.

It was Bloomington’s edition of the National Life Chain demonstration, which is an annual event that started in 1987.

This year’s demonstration against abortion comes in the wake of the US Supreme Court Dobbs v. Jackson decision handed down in June, which overturned the 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade. Soon after that ruling, Indiana’s state legislature passed SB1, which prohibits most abortions in the state.

The local demonstration also comes during during the run-up to decisions on the city of Bloomington’s 2023 budget, which includes a $2,500 reimbursement for expenses that a city worker might pay in connection with travel out of the state to obtain abortion services.

Also a part of the city’s 2023 budget proposal is a $100,000 allocation to fund an emergency reproductive health care grant program. The city council will hear a first reading this Thursday of a $100,000 appropriation that would fund the emergency reproductive health care grant program starting this year.

About the reimbursement for travel expenses, local Life Chain spokesman Eric Rasmusen wrote in response to an emailed B Square question: “I, of course, think the city should not fund abortions, but really they’re just grandstanding—$2,500 to travel to Illinois?” Continue reading “Bloomington’s annual Life Chain demonstration precedes city budget decisions” →

Fourth of July parade with protest in the mix “quintessentially Bloomington”

B Square file photo (July 4, 2022)

The morning’s scheduled events in downtown Bloomington on July 4 included a performance by the community band, the rededication of the Alexander Memorial on the southeast corner of the courthouse, and a parade—which headed south on College Avenue, then back up Walnut Street.

Not a part of the program was a protest against a recent decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that overturned Roe v. Wade. The earlier 1973 decision had found that access to an abortion was a constitutional right.

When the rededication ceremony started, demonstrators filed past the southeast corner and headed one block west, to the southwest corner of the square. The B Square counted about 150 protesters, who gathered at the intersection of Kirkwood and College avenues, on the south side of Kirkwood.

Chants and speeches through a megaphone from the protesters could be heard at the Alexander Memorial dedication. But the sound system amplified remarks from speakers enough to make them heard on that corner of the square. At the protester’s corner, the dedication ceremony was audible, but was drowned out by the megaphone.

At mid-block, the message from both corners was a bit muddled.

The idea that a protest and rededication ceremony would take place on opposite ends of the same block, was described by one bystander as “quintessentially Bloomington.”

The protest was organized by Students for a New Green World, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Continue reading “Fourth of July parade with protest in the mix “quintessentially Bloomington”” →

SCOTUS abortion ruling prompts Bloomington demonstrations

Friday morning’s Supreme Court of the United States ruling, which overturned Roe v. Wade, prompted around 100 people to demonstrate later that evening, at the southeast corner of the Monroe County courthouse square, in downtown Bloomington.

The ruling also prompted a one-man demonstration the following day at Bloomington’s farmers market.

Roe v. Wade was the 1973 SCOTUS decision that concluded abortion is a right guaranteed by the Constitution. Friday’s ruling concluded that it is not a constitutional right, which means states can enact laws that prohibit abortions.

Both demonstrations included light brushes with local law enforcement officers, but no arrests were made in either case. Continue reading “SCOTUS abortion ruling prompts Bloomington demonstrations” →