About 100 attend Dixon protest for abortion rights

DIXON – Close to 100 people participated in a Fourth of July protest in downtown Dixon against the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Dobbs case that overturned abortion rights.

The protest was called Women’s Protest Against Overturn of Roe vs. Wade and was organized on Facebook by Morgan McNeill of Dixon.

Attendance was based on a count of people appearing photographs of the event posted to the event’s discussion board.

As it rained, protesters held signs while they marched across the Galena Avenue bridge from John Dixon Park before congregating at the Old Lee County Courthouse.

Once there, some took to the median of Route 52/Route 26 just north of the Dixon Arch, where they held up signs to drivers on the highway.

Several signs read “My body, my choice,” which was a rallying cry marchers took up at one point as cars honked when they passed.

Terri Clark, 61, of Polo considers herself an introvert, but she decided to participate in the first public protest of her life “because this ban is so far-reaching in what it affects in women’s reproductive rights, it will just be devastating.”

This was the second protest in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision June 24. Although unaffiliated, there was a smaller protest at the Old Lee County Courthouse on June 25.

Another protest appears to be in the planning stages for 11 a.m. July 16 at John Dixon Park. The We Won’t Go Back women’s reproductive rights protest is being organized on Facebook by Shannon Keely and Liam DuBois.