Reproductive Rights march targets forced births, denial of body autonomy

Last Updated on July 5, 2022, 10:47 PM | Published: July 5, 2022

OKLAHOMA CITY (Free Press) — With intentional irony on the 4th of July, women and their allies gathered at the Oklahoma Capitol for a rally decrying the loss of freedom and body autonomy for women. At the end, participants marched into Bricktown in downtown OKC to demonstrate a loss of freedom in the center of the July 4th celebration each year for the core of Oklahoma City.

A crowd that grew to our estimation of around 300 at the Capitol shouted, cheered, and booed different references to recent developments.

Speakers didn’t just focus on the U.S. Supreme Court reversing the Roe vs. Wade decision that had established abortion as a right for 50 years, even though that was one of the central issues addressed. In addition, speakers criticized the Republican super majority in the Oklahoma Legislature and Oklahoma’s Republican Governor, Keven Stitt.

A red thread that ran through all the speeches and the chants from the crowd was one of resistance to going back to the past pre-Roe:

• “We are not livestock!”
• “We will not sit down and shut up!”
• Chant: “Break the chain!”
• “We’re not going back to 1972!”
• Responding chant: “Hell no! We won’t go!”
• “We will not go silently!”

There is no better way to convey the message of the protesters than to show their signs. So, here is our gallery along with images of some speakers and sights from the rally and beginning of the march:

Gallery – Capitol and march

Photos by Editor Brett Dickerson. Click on any image to bring up a bigger, higher resolution version and then scroll through. On mobile, turn your phone landscape.