The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

At Sunday services, D.C.-area churches tackle Supreme Court draft leak

Updated May 8, 2022 at 10:38 p.m. EDT|Published May 8, 2022 at 6:53 p.m. EDT
Garrett Kell, pastor of Del Ray Baptist Church in Alexandria, on May 8. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
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correction

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Katie Montoya was holding her 10-month-old daughter on her knee. She was holding her son. This article has been corrected.

Just steps from the U.S. Supreme Court, the music of an organ floated out a church door Sunday as streams of women walked past, bundled against the wind and chill, clutching pink posters and cardboard signs to their chests.

“Bans off our bodies,” some signs said.

“Protect women,” others said.

As a crowd was gathering outside the court in D.C. to rally for abortion rights Sunday morning, congregants of the many churches in and around the nation’s capital grappled with how to address the leak of a draft opinion indicating the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending nearly 50 years of a constitutional right to abortion.