Thousands march outside White House demanding Biden do more to defend US abortion rights

Sit in comes a day after Joe Biden signed an executive order intended to preserve access to abortion following Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs Wade

Biden, whose room for manoeuvre on the issue is limited, has come under fire for perceived inaction since last month’s court ruling

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Demonstrators hold a sit-in in front of the White House during a Women’s March rally in Washington, D.C., US, on Saturday. President Biden on Friday signed an executive order intended to preserve access to abortion following last month’s Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 10:20am, 10 Jul 2022Updated: 3:57pm, 10 Jul 2022

Hundreds of abortion rights protesters waved banners and chanted on Saturday outside the White House to demand the president take stronger action to protect access to the procedure recently revoked by the US Supreme Court.

The estimated 1,000-strong crowd of mainly women shouted slogans like “My body, my choice” and some sat down on the pavement in pouring rain, with police standing by.

With President Joe Biden spending the weekend at his holiday home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware a few hours away, demonstrators called on him to do more to combat the June 24 Supreme Court ruling overturning the Roe vs Wade decision of 1973, which enshrined the right to abortion in the United States.

Demonstrators hold a sit-in in front of the White House during a Women’s March rally in Washington, D.C., US, on Saturday. Photo: Bloomberg

“Stand up, Joe Biden,” said Becca, 37, who travelled more than two hours to Washington from Virginia. She carried a banner reading, “Abortion on demand without apology.”

She said an executive order Biden signed on Friday aiming to help women access abortion pills and travel to states where they can still get an abortion was insufficient.

“Fix this! This executive order that he put out wasn’t enough,” said Becca, who declined to give her last name.

“I want a world that wasn’t the world that my grandmother had to live in. My mom already fought for this in the streets. We shouldn’t have to be here,” she added.

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