GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — June 24th, 2022 - the day the nation's highest court repealed constitutional protections for abortion.
The only thing seemingly hotter than the asphalt of the street below were the fury and festivity of the hundreds, if not thousands, that gathered outside the Supreme Court.
"Whose streets? Our streets," the crowd chanted amid a sea of green bandanas, banners and other items meant to signify solidarity with the abortion rights movement.
Early in the day, a number of pro-life advocates gathered outside the court to welcome the court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that overturned the nearly 50-year-old ruling in Roe v. Wade.
For those like Anna Lulis, it was a day of celebration.
"This is a huge win for life, a huge win for human rights and protecting the sanctity of human life," Lulis said.
For others, it was a day of devastation.
"They have worked to keep us down," civil rights lawyer Elizabeth Paige White told the crowd that day. "They worked to keep us enslaved. They worked to keep us out [of] the polls. They worked to keep us out of political offices. They worked to keep us in the home. But we know, as we fought for centuries, that this will not stand."
The decision sent shockwaves throughout the nation, including in Michigan, as word spread of what had happened.
"You know, I have three daughters," State Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) told 13 ON YOUR SIDE as she reflected on the day the decision came down. "They're all in their twenties and I could not stop thinking about 'What does this mean for them? What does the world look like in a post-Dobbs world, in a post-Roe world?'"
"You know, and I just remember thinking, 'Of course, of course this happened,'" State Rep. Carol Glanville (D-Walker) said. "And it's a call to action. It motivates me every day."
Other on-lookers saw that day much differently.
"It was an extremely joyous day," Grand Rapids Right to Life President Laura Alexandria said. "It was almost an unbelievable day. And I was at home on that day and, for the first time, I turned the TV on in the middle of the day to watch the celebrations in Washington D.C."
The events of that summer, including a leak of a draft opinion in the case earlier in the year, pushed many into action.
"I think the shock of that leak, for me - we just had almost no time to even process it because we had to get to work," Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) said.
Stateside, the court's decision galvanized efforts that culminated in the passage of Ballot Proposal 3 in 2022, which codified abortion protections into Michigan's constitution.
But in the 2 years since Dobbs, almost two dozen other states have moved to restrict it.
The issue has only grown more pivotal for many, as another election season looms and some in the community fear the possibility of a federal ban that could override state law.
"For me and my friends, there's a lot of fear," local activist and Grand Valley State University student Nancy Hoogwerf said. "Luckily, we know here that Michigan, we have the right to choose, and there's a codified right to abortion. But in other states where we might move after college, that's just not existent in other states. So there's a lot of fear across the board."
It's a fear many others share.
"They're going to try and tell you that overturning Roe two years ago was it," Slotkin told supporters at a Grand Rapids rally last week. "That was what they aimed to do, they had a 50-year plan, they overturned it and now they're done, right? Please, please don't believe them. Look at what they do and not at what they say."
But others see some politicians' use of the issue as concerning.
"My concern right now is that a lot of candidates are using the threat of a national ban as a political maneuver to get votes," Alexandria said. "And I think that is a disservice to women and to voters."
But it's a seemingly uphill battle against public opinion for abortion opponents in this key state.
A Michigan poll from Quinnipiac conducted in March found that 66% of those polled believed abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
"It's very disheartening to hear that people believe abortion should be a right," Alexandria said. "And what it comes back to for us is we need to educate more. We need to educate on fetal development. We need to educate on options that are available for women, opportunities for them to make that very courageous choice for life."
But with what some say has been seen since the fall of Roe, people like Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Alexis McGill Johnson believe it's all on the line this November.
McGill Johnson contextualized her concerns with stories from states with more restrictive laws.
In doing so, she seemingly referred to both a report first made available to NPR that alleged doctors in Louisiana had been driven to perform C-Sections instead of abortions, as well as the story of an Oklahoma woman who filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services after she said she was told she should wait in the parking lot until her condition worsened before they could administer an abortion.
"The cruelty and the confusion and chaos that both patients and providers are living under - we now understand what that reality looks like," McGill Johnson said.
But where both sides seem to agree is where they say this fight will continue on with them and their allies on the front lines of one of the most divisive debates in America.
"Most people I talk to are very hopeful about the upcoming election, but they do understand it's going to take a lot of work, and even that work can just be talking to family friends, putting a yard sign out, educating yourself on all the position of the candidates," Alexandria said. "But we're very hopeful."
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