PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — It’s been nearly one year since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade, stripping abortion rights for women in a number of states across the country.

Abortion remains legal in Pacific Northwest states Oregon and Washington. Still, women in Vancouver, Wash., plan to join their counterparts in other locations that are organizing a march to mark the first anniversary of the Dobbs decision.

Rachel O’Leary Carmona, executive director of the national Women’s March movement, remembers traveling to Washington, D.C., when the ruling was officially announced on June 24, 2022.

“I think the thing about the Dobbs decision, given the leak, is that we all knew it was coming pretty much from Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death… but it did not stop it from being a gut punch,” she said. “Dobbs didn’t just overturn Roe, it overturned the idea of settled law in the United States, which is a dark day for women, but also a dark day for democracy.”

According to Carmona, the U.S. has found itself cracking down on abortion rights at the same time that many other countries — such as New Zealand, Argentina and San Marino — are liberalizing their own.

Even within the U.S., the laws vary state by state — with Oregon ranked the best state overall for women’s reproductive rights.

That’s why some medical residents travel to other state institutions, like the Oregon Health & Science University’s Center for Women’s Health, to receive abortion care training that they wouldn’t otherwise.

This sense of resistance is one overarching message of the flagship Women’s March happening in Washington, D.C.

“We are in a position to continue to win and to beat back these attacks,” Carmona said. “I never lose when I bet on women and that’s what I’m gonna keep doing.”

Demonstrators in Vancouver, Wash., will also participate in this day of action on Saturday, June 24.

The local march starts at 11 a.m. on 415 W 6th St.