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The Supreme Court ruled Friday to overturn Roe v. Wade, meaning any state can now ban abortion.
With such distressing news sweeping the nation, Pride Today correspondent Stephen Walker took the streets of Provincetown, Mass., to get reactions.“It just felt like a physical blow to my body,” one person said. “In some sense, it’s not a surprise, but it was just such a deep shock nonetheless, just physically upsetting.”
A longtime haven for the LGBTQ+ community, Provincetown, known as “P-town” among locals, has embodied a completely different philosophy from that of the decision — a philosophy of freedom.
“It’s shocking to me that that’s being taken away this many years later,” another person shared, noting that Provincetown is a place of “freedom and pride and being your own person.” While it’s rare for the Supreme Court to overrule precedent, it’s not out of reach, as seen today. And now Americans are looking ahead at cases that could be next.
“I was talking with a guy earlier this morning, and he thinks that next thing will be gay marriage gets overturned, which I don’t know when it’s going to end,” a P-town resident shared.
One thing’s clear: Justice Clarence Thomas doesn’t seem to have an ending in sight.“We should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” he wrote in a concurring opinion, adding that they then “have a duty” to “overrule these demonstrably erroneous decisions.” The decisions established nationwide rights to, respectively, contraception, private consensual sex, and same-sex marriage.
“The tumbling of Roe v. Wade is the first of a trigger for many, many things that the Supreme Court could start to overturn now,” another person told Walker. “That’s a part of the conservative agenda, and it’s frightening.”
Watch Provincetown residents’ reactions below.
