Nearby, sitting in a tree above the crowd, Kate Coiro, 23, held a sign that read: “You can’t be pro-gun and pro-life,” referring to a Supreme Court decision on Thursday that a New York Gun Control Act.
“This was the first time I felt personally attacked by a government decision,” said Ms. Coiro of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. “I want people to know that no one likes abortion, not even the people who get it. It’s nobody’s plan A. But if you’re not in a place to raise a child, you shouldn’t have to.”
By evening, the crowds in the park began to disperse, and a few hundred moved south toward lower Manhattan.
As the march ended in Foley Square, Maya Vargas worried about her family in Florida, one of a number of states with so-called trigger laws that allow for a quick ban on most or all abortions now that Roe v. Wade has been overthrown.
“I was very concerned about my family because they live in the south,” said Ms Vargas, 21, of Astoria, Queens. “We’re relatively privileged here in New York, we don’t have to worry about that right now.”
“My younger cousins are scared,” she added.
Back on the corner of West Fourth Street and LaGuardia Place, Sophie Apple, 26, from Harlem wondered what she could do to help people in other states.
“Somehow my goal is to make donations where I can, volunteer where I can, help women travel to New York or other states,” she said, “because that seems to be the way forward.” .”
Hurubie Meko and Julianne McShane reporting contributed.