Women’s March plans to protest over Barrett

The day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017, the Women’s March drew millions of people to the streets of Washington, D.C., and cities across the country in a collective display of outrage and grief that was widely considered the largest single-day protest in American history.

As another presidential election nears and as the nation faces a deadly pandemic, historic racial justice protests and a contentious Supreme Court nomination process, the Women’s March organizers are hoping to, once again, channel grief and fear into action. But this time, they’re not waiting until January.

Last week, the Women’s March organization said it is planning a “socially distant march” in Washington and more than 30 other cities on Oct. 17, days before Senate Republicans aim to vote on Trump’s pick to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court. Trump has nominated Amy Coney Barrett, a circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, whose writings have led conservatives and liberals to believe she would be willing to vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. She has also been critical of a 2012 Supreme Court decision that upheld the Affordable Care Act.

The goal, the Women’s March group says, is to “send an unmistakable message about the fierce opposition to Trump and his agenda, including his attempt to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat.”

The organization plans to organize a rally in Freedom Plaza, followed by a march to the Supreme Court, and estimates that about 10,000 people will participate, according to an application for a permit submitted on Wednesday with the National Park Service. A permit has not yet been issued.

“We had an idea of what was to come, but I don’t think we knew how bad it would get,” said Rachel O’Leary Carmona, executive director of the Women’s March. “This march is different, but the stakes are the same, and that’s everything for women . . . our health, our family, our wellness. Our stakes have become higher and higher.”

Each year since pink-hatted women first flooded the nation’s capital in 2017, the Women’s March has organized marches in January in D.C. and across the country, promoting a list of policy demands and helping energize women to run for office in record numbers. But the recent marches have drawn much smaller crowds than the seminal event after Trump’s inauguration. The national organization has at times struggled to remain relevant, as scores of its initial attendees have redirected their attention toward other causes. It has also overhauled its leadership, following national controversies and accusations of anti-Semitism that frayed the group’s relationship with Jewish women.

At the most recent Women’s March, some attendees said they hoped they wouldn’t need to march again, following the 2020 election. And amid the covid19 pandemic, the organization’s leaders were unsure to what extent they would be able to mobilize an in-person event for 2021.

But then, “the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg reset the whole country,” O’Leary Carmona said. The day after Ginsburg’s death, more than 7,800 people signed up to host vigils for the justice across the country, O’Leary Carmona said. The following day, Women’s March organizers started conceptualizing the idea for an October event. The rally is part of a broader focus to become an organization that can be responsive and flexible to “meet the political moment,” O’Leary Carmona said.

It’s also an opportunity for the Women’s March to capitalize on the Supreme Court fight and the sustained protests nationwide, said Dana R. Fisher, a University of Maryland professor who studies protest movements.