Demonstrators return to San Francisco streets to protest Supreme Court abortion ruling

SAN FRANCISCO — Abortion rights supporters protested for the second straight day across the San Francisco Bay Area.

At a San Francisco march on Saturday evening, demonstrators said they wanted to channel their anger into action by encouraging people to vote.

Among the many young people chanting and marching near San Francisco City Hall was an Oakland family.

“I’m here to protest what I think is probably the most unjust ruling of my generation,” said demonstrator Tanya Mayo.

Mayo brought her partner and her four kids, ages 9, 11, 13, and 15.

“There’s a sense of grief. It’s a sense of loss. It’s almost like vicarious trauma,” said Mayo.

She said by overturning Roe Vs. Wade, the Supreme Court is rolling back 50 years of abortion rights. She worried for her 11-year-old daughter, Nalani Arana.

“We have to come out and we have to continue to come out because I will not allow my (daughter) to grow up where she has less choices and less freedom than the generation before her,” Mayo said as she marched with her family.

Her kids said they learned valuable lessons at the march that couldn’t be taught in classrooms.

“People can grow up in fear because the guns have more rights than women have,” said Arana.

“My parents got to grow up and they got to have the choice to have an abortion.  And my sister here, who’s not going to have that choice,” said 15-year-old Kekoa Mayo-McKnight.

The march for abortion rights started in front of the federal building and courthouse in San Francisco.

“[My sign] says ‘Bans off our bodies’. I think [abortion] should be a decision between women and their doctor. I don’t think the government should be involved whatsoever,” said demonstrator Marina Riddle.

Some people at the Pride celebration joined the march as a few hundred demonstrators made their way to city hall and down Market Street.

“We need to use our voices.  I think our voices are very powerful and we need to speak our minds,” said Riddle.

“We’ve got to go to the ballot boxes, and we’ve got to cast the vote to make sure we continuously put people back in office who are going to represent the voice and the choice of the people,” said Mayo.