Activist Groups To Hold Pro-Choice Rally Saturday In Beverly

CHICAGO — Southsiders for Peace, the Coalition for Change Illinois, and Progressives of South Cook County are hosting a pro-choice rally in Chicago's Beverly neighborhood Saturday, May 14. Residents can gather at 1 p.m. at 103rd Street and Western Avenue.

The rally is in response to a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion which would overturn Roe v. Wade, stripping the constitutional right to abortion in spite of 50 years of precedent.

The rally will include remarks from Congressman Marie Newman (IL-03), who is on the record as supporting a woman’s right to bodily autonomy. Newman recently penned an op-ed for CNN, about her own decision to have an abortion when she was 19.

“Looking back more than 30 years, I have no doubt that I made the right choice. I am grateful for that teenage version of myself who had the wisdom and the courage to make that difficult decision,” Newman wrote. “And I'm even more grateful that I had the freedom to exercise that choice.”

Newman is an active member of the Democratic Women’s Caucus and the Pro-Choice Caucus. In 2020, she defeated Dan Lipinski, one of the last anti-choice Democrats in Congress. She is a candidate in the newly remapped IL-06 congressional Democratic primary.