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People gather for a rally in support of abortion rights organized by gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke on Saturday, May 7, 2022, at Discovery Green in Houston.
People gather for a rally in support of abortion rights organized by gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke on Saturday, May 7, 2022, at Discovery Green in Houston.
People gather for a rally in support of abortion rights organized by gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke on Saturday, May 7, 2022, at Discovery Green in Houston.
Beto O’Rourke speaks on stage in front of a large crowd during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
A crowd gathers before the start of an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
A crowd gathers before the start of an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
Casey Kelly holds a sign as she walked in front of a gathering crowd before an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
The crowd cheers during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
The crowd cheers during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
A woman in the crowd with a “Come and Take It” sign during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
Beto O’Rourke speaks on stage in front of a large crowd during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
Beto O’Rourke speaks on stage in front of a large crowd during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
The crowd cheers during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
Beto O’Rourke speaks on stage in front of a large crowd during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
Beto O’Rourke hugs Sheila Jackson Lee on stage in front of a large crowd during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
Beto O’Rourke speaks on stage in front of a large crowd during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
People with signs during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
People with signs during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
Counter protesters yell from across the water during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
Chea Serda holds her son, Beto, 4, during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
A woman with a sign during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
A woman with a sign during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
A woman with a sign during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
Women with signs in the crowd during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
A woman with a sign during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
Congress woman Sheila Jackson Lee holds a hanger as she addressed the crowd during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
Beto O’Rourke addresses the crowd during an abortion rights rally organized by O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
A man with a sign in the crowd during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
Beto O’Rourke high-fives a woman from the stage after speaking to a large crowd during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
Beto O’Rourke addresses the crowd during an abortion rights rally organized by O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
Thousands stampeded through sweltering heat in downtown Houston to protest the potential unraveling of Roe v. Wade at a rally headlined by gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke.
O’Rourke’s team said numbers swelled from 4,000 to nearly 5,000 people who gathered at Discovery Green Park, although Houston Police did not have an official crowd estimate. Protesters expressed shock and anger at the draft Supreme Court opinion leaked last week, indicating the landmark court ruling could be overturned. A so-called “trigger law” in Texas would make abortions illegal within 30 days of the court tossing out Roe v. Wade.
Natasha Klimas, 33, said has never been the type to attend protests but the shock of the news pushed her to come out.
TIME MAY BE UP: Even with Texas' strict abortion laws, some clinics have survived
“A lot of people around my age don’t know what it’s like without Roe v. Wade. It’s scary,” she said. She carried a poster with wire hanger taped onto it and the phrase: “This is the Republican health care plan.” Klimas, a physician who lives near Rice University, said she’s worried about how overturning Roe v. Wade will impact women and trans-female’s access to reproductive healthcare.
Beto O’Rourke speaks on stage in front of a large crowd during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
A crowd gathers before the start of an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
Bella Thomas and Jaylen Gregory, both 18 year-old students at Clear Brook High School in Friendswood, held bright pink signs that read: “Against abortion? Get a Vasectomy!” and “Don’t Tread on Me” with a snake in the shape of a uterus. They said they both know girls who were too scared to tell their parents they were pregnant and instead tried to force a miscarriage by taking drugs or binge drinking.
'THIS IS A BABY WE WANT': Texas cancer patient contends with abortion ban
Banning legal abortions “is not going to stop abortions. It’s going to stop safe abortions,” Gregory said.
Carol Lapin, 65, remembers the world before Roe v. Wade where people died due to unsafe abortions. The Spring Branch-area resident said she worried the brunt of unwanted pregnancies would fall on low-income women who couldn’t afford to travel out of state to access an abortion.
“You want to force people to have babies, why don’t we force you to take care of them?” Lapin said.
Democrats are trying to channel that fury over into the polls in a year when gubernatorial candidate O’Rourke is challenging incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott, who last year signed into law one of the most restrictive anti-abortion measures in the country.
On Saturday, O’Rourke reassured supporters that not all hope is lost when ensuring access to abortion in Texas.
“Whatever we think the odds are against us, this is possible and in fact it has been done before up against much greater odds,” O’Rourke said. He referenced Jane Roe - (Norma McCorvey) the woman who was the plaintiff in the landmark Roe. V Wade case - who lived in Texas when she sought to challenge Texas’ abortion laws. “It was Texas women themselves who won the right for privacy and a legal, safe abortion in the state of Texas.”
GRIEDER: If Roe v. Wade is vulnerable, what else is on the line?
O’Rourke’s speech touched on everything from guns control to transgender rights - framing the abortion debate as part of a broader attack on Texans’ health and safety.
“If this guy [Abbott] really cared about the heartbeats of Texas kids, an 11 year-old in Conroe, Texas would not have died [in the Texas Freeze] ... because this guy could not keep the lights on and the heat running in the energy capital of the world,” O’Rourke said. He pointed out that Texas has a relatively high maternal mortality rate, noting maternal mortality is worse among black women. “This guy doesn’t care about life,” he said.
The part-protest, part campaign rally drew many of the biggest local Democratic names — including Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Mayor Sylvester Turner — who implored protesters to turn out at the polls.
A CLOSER LOOK: How Texas lawmakers voted on the abortion trigger bill that would take effect if Roe v. Wade falls
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo high-fives a woman in the front row during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
Rep. Ann Johnson encouraged people to reach out to Republican women.
“There is one man on the ballot” who would force your granddaughter, daughter or niece to raise a child conceived through rape, Johnson said, of Gov. Greg Abbott. “And there is one man on the ballot who can save us, and that is Beto O’Rourke!”
(Abbott previously said he would work to “eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas by aggressively going out and arresting them and prosecuting them and getting them off the streets." At the same though, he signed a state law last year banning all abortions after six weeks with no exceptions for rape or incest.)
'A MASSIVE VICTORY': Ted Cruz, other Texans react to Supreme Court abortion bombshell
Rep. Sylvia Garcia said the draft opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court would erase more than 50 years of progress.
“We would turn back the clock to days of hangers and milk maids,” she said, imploring people to vote and lead the crowd in a chant, “Abbott must go!”
Congress woman Sheila Jackson Lee holds a hanger as she addressed the crowd during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
The crowd fell quiet when U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee held up a wire coat hanger on the stage.
“I’m holding the tool that women were forced in America in some back alley, in some back alley - my sister, your sister, a grandmother, a cousin - [were] forced to take this as her tool to her body to try and save her life. Many of you may have heard the story that some did not make it… Are we going back?” Jackson Lee asked the crowd, who responded with a resounding “No!”
While the draft Supreme Court ruling outraged many Houstonians, others who are pro-life were cautiously optimistic this week. The protest came the day after Houston Coalition for Life held its own fundraiser that was expected to draw more than 550 attendees. Christine Melchor, executive director of Houston Coalition for Life, said she knows the her nonprofit that provides resources, counseling, diapers to mothers will have to ramp up services if Roe v. Wade is indeed overturned.
“Crisis pregnancies aren’t going to end just because abortion may be illegal for Texans. We’re still going to be available and help the many women that need it,” Melchor said.
A woman in the crowd with a “Come and Take It” sign during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
Women with signs in the crowd during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
A woman with a sign during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
The crowd cheers during an abortion rights rally organized by Beto O’Rourke at Discovery Green on Saturday, May 7, 2022 in Houston.
Polling suggests roughly equal shares of Texans consider themselves “pro-choice” and “pro-life,” and voters overwhelmingly believe that abortion should be legal in at least some cases, such as if the mother’s life is at risk or if the pregnancy results from rape or incest.
WHAT'S AT STAKE: Supreme Court abortion bombshell takes spotlight in Texas governor’s race between Abbott, O’Rourke
On Friday, Abbott tweeted the results of a CNN poll suggesting that impact of overturning Roe v. Wade would have only “muted” impact on the mid-term elections.
“In Texas it will be like 2014 all over again: not close,” Abbott wrote. However, the CNN poll itself suggested about 30% of Republicans, 65% of independents and 81% of Democrats did not support an outright overturning of Roe s. Wade.
- Interactive map shows where abortion would be banned, protected
- Leak of draft opinion raises fears of the days before Roe
- With Roe v. Wade at risk, anti-abortion advocate is ‘hopeful’
- Thousands attend Roe v. Wade protest at Discovery Green
- Texas cancer patient contends with abortion ban
- Ted Cruz, other Texans react to Supreme Court abortion bombshell
- Is Texas as pro-life as Republicans say? What polling data shows
- What options will Texans have under abortion trigger law?
Marissa Luck covers real estate for the Houston Chronicle.
Originally from Hawaii, Marissa previously covered refining and chemicals for the Chronicle and also had stints at Costar, the Austin Business Journal and The Daily News in Longview, Wash.
She grew up near Seattle and studied international political economy at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash.