From the Mission to the Castro, March for Reproductive Justice

Photos by Rachel Podlishevsky and Terry Scussel, Probonophoto.org. Please credit the photographers. Top photo by Rachel Podlishevsky.

Some came cloaked in red robes with white bonnets inspired by the novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” because, they said, "the theme of controlling reproductive rights runs throughout the novel." Clustered close together they created a sea of bright red. But the dominant color of the day was green and it was everywhere. Green dyed hair, green shirts, green face paint, but especially green bandanas.

The green bandana is the new symbol of American protesters in the battle for reproductive rights in this country but its use has been around for at least a decade. In Argentina activists fought to decriminalize abortion in a sweeping movement that came to be called the Green Wave. Demonstrators in San Francisco on May 14 said that the work that has been done by tireless advocates throughout Latin America is inspiration to rally and march in the streets in the US until reproductive rights are guaranteed here.