LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Hours after the U.S. Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, hundreds of people took to the streets of downtown Louisville to protest the decision.

Friday's ruling strips away the nation's constitutional protections for abortion that stood for nearly a half-century, given to Americans by the court's landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, returning the power back to the states to decide whether or not abortion should be legal.

Hours after the decision, feelings of outrage, frustration and disappointment filled the space in front of the Gene Snyder Courthouse on Broadway in downtown Louisville where hundreds of people gathered in protest.

Politicians and representatives with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Planned Parenthood spoke at the rally in front of the city's federal courthouse.

Some of those running for office spoke, including Charles Booker, Craig Greenberg and Morgan McGarvey. Many of them encouraged the crowd to vote blue this November, since the decision of abortions will now be left to the state to decide. Louisville Metro Council was also represented, with appearances by David James, Cassie Chambers Armstrong and Bill Hollander.

The crowd had a message: "bans off our bodies," which they took to the streets, marching down the sidewalks along Broadway and down onto 5th Street which was closed when some started interfering with traffic.

The march ended on Jefferson Street, which was blocked off, in front of Metro Hall where a second rally took place. 

Among those protesting on Friday was a woman who said the decision hit home personally. 

"I had an abortion back in the 70s when it had just been passed, Roe v. Wade," Shelley Chapman said. "I can't believe I'm here fighting again for a right we had for 50 years. I'm angry, I'm extremely sad about this."

Shelley told WDRB News she was in college when she got pregnant. 

"I don't know, as a young college student who was using birth control and got pregnant and would not have been able to pursue my master's degree, I don't know what I would have done."

"They say no choice? We say pro-choice," the crowd chanted.

When asked what it was like going through the abortion experience in the 70s, Shelley said it was new.

"It was so new that they still didn't have a big infrastructure, so even with that it was a bit scary, but I was sure that's what I wanted to do," she said. 

"The people united will never be divided," people repeated in the crowd.

"I'm here to get active. I'm now retired, so if I have to get arrested to protest or whatever I have to do, now that I have the time I intend to do that," Shelley said.

IMAGES | Rally held in downtown Louisville after Supreme Court abortion decision

The decision by the court's conservative majority is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states, more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was prepared to take this momentous step.

He was joined Friday by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett in the vote to overturn Roe v. Wade 5-4. The latter three justices are Trump appointees. Thomas first voted to overrule Roe 30 years ago. But Chief Justice John Roberts didn't join his conservative colleagues in overturning Roe v. Wade.

Four justices would have left Roe and Casey in place. Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — the diminished liberal wing of the court — were in dissent.

“With sorrow—for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection—we dissent,” they wrote, warning that abortion opponents now could pursue a nationwide ban “from the moment of conception and without exceptions for rape or incest.”

More than 90% of abortions take place in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, and more than half are now done with pills, not surgery, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

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