U.S. Capitol Police arrested 17 lawmakers, including leftist Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, following a confrontation with police during a protest advocating for the right to abortion. The Capitol Police tweeted, "We have arrested a total of 35 individuals," including "17 members of Congress."
The police stated that they ordered demonstrators to clear the street between the Capitol building and the Supreme Court, but some refused to comply with their orders. After issuing three warnings to these individuals, the police proceeded to arrest them.
Meanwhile, Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar tweeted that the Capitol Police arrested her while she was participating in "civil disobedience," adding that she and Ocasio-Cortez, both symbols of the left wing of the Democratic Party, "will do everything possible to sound the alarm about the assault on our reproductive rights."
Additionally, a video posted by Ocasio-Cortez on her Twitter account showed a police officer escorting her off the street separating the Capitol and the Supreme Court. According to Axios news website, all 17 arrested lawmakers are Democratic representatives, most of whom are women.
It is noteworthy that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the historic ruling made in 1973 that established women's rights to abortion as enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, a decision that returned the United States to a state where each state has the authority to either allow or prohibit abortion.
In 1973, the Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in the "Roe v. Wade" case, which "guaranteed a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy as long as the fetus was not viable outside her womb, approximately up to 22 weeks into the pregnancy." However, the highest judicial authority in the United States overturned this decision, and therefore, the right to abortion is no longer enshrined in federal law but varies from state to state.
The balance of power within the Supreme Court had drastically changed during the tenure of former President Donald Trump, who appointed three of its nine justices, all from conservative backgrounds, creating a two-thirds conservative majority of six to three.
