By Ronn Blitzer , Louis Casiano
Wednesday July 20, 2022
Multiple members of Congress including Reps. Ilhan Omar,
D-Minn., and Alma Adams, D-N.C., were arrested by Capitol Police Tuesday
afternoon outside the Supreme Court building during an abortion rights protest.
Adams' staff confirmed her arrest in a tweet from her
official account. Omar's office confirmed her arrest to WCCO.
In a tweet, Omar remained defiant.
"Today I was arrested while participating in a civil
disobedience action with my fellow Members of Congress outside the Supreme
Court. I will continue to do everything in my power to raise the alarm about
the assault on our reproductive rights!" she wrote.
Capitol Police warned demonstrators that they would be
taking action.
"It is against the law to block traffic, so officers
are going to give our standard three warnings before they start making
arrests," Capitol Police tweeted.
Minutes later, they announced that "[s]ome of the
demonstrators are refusing to get out of the street, so we are starting to make
arrests."
Capitol Police later tweeted that they arrested 34 people in
total, including 16 members of Congress.Video from the scene showed Rep.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., being led away by police with her arms
crossed behind her back, though no handcuffs were visible.
Authorities did not specify which members of Congress were
arrested.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., released a statement after her
arrest, saying "there is no democracy if women don't have control over
their own bodies and decisions about their own health, including reproductive
are."
"I have the privilege of representing a state where
reproductive rights are respected and protected – the least I can do is put my
body on the line for the 33 million women at risk of losing their rights,"
she said.
Rep, Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., also took part in the
demonstration.
"Today we marched to the SCOTUS to protest the radical
right-wing decision to overturn Roe," she tweeted. "It’s time for
some good trouble. We won’t go back."
A tweet from local Michigan outlet BridgeDetroit reporter
Malachi Barrett, said that Ocasio-Cortez's fellow left-wing "Squad"
member Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., was also arrested. Fox News reached out to
the offices of Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib for information but neither immediately
responded.
Abortion rights protests outside the Supreme Court building
have been prevalent ever since a draft of the opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson
Women's Health Organization leaked. The final opinion, released in June,
overturned Roe v. Wade, reversing the high court's previously held position
that abortion was a constitutional right.
The ruling has prompted significant backlash against the
high court and attacks on the offices of pro-life groups across the country.