SCOTUS Ruling Evokes Range of Dismay among Demonstrators on Bedford Common

Rich Daugherty attached a hand-made sign to a nine-foot metal pole: “I Dream That Women One Day Will Have the Same Rights as Guns.”

“It’s from 1973,” he explained, adding, “I thought we won.”

Daugherty and more than 30 others—mostly women—lined The Great Road along the north side of the Common during rush hour Friday in a semi-spontaneous protest of the U.S. Supreme Court’s announcement earlier in the day overturning Roe v. Wade.

There were two generations along the street, plus a couple of kids perched on top of the World War I memorial boulder, their faces obscured by their sign, “Pack the Court.”

Signs expressed some of the moods evoked by the ruling: protest (“SCOTUS Has Betrayed Women”); defiance (“Rise Up” and “Fight Back”); solidarity (“Honk If You Trust Women”); principled (“Women’s Rights are Human Rights”).

One sign read “Happy Birthday,” but the owner just needed the blank side of the poster board to write a more appropriate message.

The group numbered around 10 at 5 p.m., but more than tripled in size by 5:30 as more participants drifted in from different directions. Several were veterans of racial justice demonstrations in the same spot over the past two-plus years.

Passing drivers almost universally showed support with horns and gestures.

Mike Rosenberg can be reached at [email protected], or 781-983-1763