Mariah Terrill will never forget the “sheer terror” she felt seeing the two pink lines on a test confirming she was pregnant.

Before that point, she was sure that any decision about whether to end a pregnancy would be easy, but she and her boyfriend, who’s now her husband, took two weeks to ultimately decide to have a medication abortion.

She stressed that only the two of them made that decision and that her abortion was uneventful but still lifesaving.

Terrill spoke to a crowd of hundreds gathered outside the Erb Memorial Union on the University of Oregon’s campus to protest the Supreme Court's leaked draft opinion to overturn the nearly 50-year precedent set by Roe v. Wade.

The protest was part of the nationwide "Bans Off Our Bodies" daylong event organized by groups including Women's March, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, UltraViolet, MoveOn, the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Abortion Rights Action League.

Rallies across nation:Thousands gather for nationwide 'Bans Off Our Bodies' rallies for abortion rights

There were a handful of counterprotesters, but nearly all were passive. University police pulled aside one man who was yelling and getting into verbal altercations with people attending the rally.

Terrill also spoke before a smaller crowd about an hour earlier in front of the Wayne Morse Federal Courthouse.

During both rallies, which came after nearly two weeks of protests after the leak of a draft opinion to overturn the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion, Terrill and others who spoke sent a clear message: "We will not go back. We will not go down quietly."

“How dare you trivialize and politicize something that is so deeply personal?” Terrill asked the Supreme Court and politicians who seek to limit and ban abortions.

As the official ruling in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization is expected within a few weeks, abortion access for millions of Americans remains uncertain. The potential decision would trigger an abortion ban in about half the nation's states, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Oregon is one of 16 states that have laws that protect the right to abortion.

Oregon officials codified the precedent set by Roe v Wade in anticipation that the court might overturn it, said Val Hoyle, the commissioner of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries and a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Fourth Congressional District.

“We hoped it wouldn’t come, but we knew that it would,” Hoyle said.

While Oregon protects the right to an abortion, that doesn’t mean residents should rest on their laurels, she said, and people need to elect pro-choice candidates at all levels, from the school board to the U.S. Senate.

“The war has just begun,” said State Sen. James Manning, who represents parts of north and west Eugene and Veneta. Manning said he understands that he’s not a medical practitioner and shouldn’t consider himself an expert in women’s reproductive rights.

He called the leaked decision a smokescreen and said it would become a foundation to attack other civil rights.

“This is the defining moment," Manning said. "This is a line in the sand.”

State Rep. Julie Fahey, who represents west Eugene and Junction City and is currently the majority leader in the Oregon House of Representatives, said she’s “never known a world where I didn’t have a legal right to an abortion.”

Yet she’s heard the stories of women who didn’t have the power and freedom to make choices about their own bodies.

“We have never had a constitutional right taken away from us, but that is exactly what the Supreme Court is poised to do,” Fahey said.

Protestors stand on the shoulders of giants, Fahey said, and need to continue the fight.

More than 350 "Bans Off Our Bodies" demonstrations for abortion rights were held across the United States on Saturday.

Abortion rights advocates gathered in the nation's capital and by state capitols for a challenging task: persuading the Supreme Court not to reverse the 50-year precedent set by Roe v. Wade.

After listening to speeches from activists, elected officials and faith leaders in the nation's capital, thousands of demonstrators embarked on an hourlong march to the Supreme Court under cloudy skies and occasional drizzle, joining several hundred other demonstrators there.

Many of the D.C. attendees wore ponchos and carried umbrellas and shouted chants such as “Hands off our bodies” and “We will fight back" to the beat of bucket drums. Some said they doubted the conservative Supreme Court would change course and vote to uphold Roe v. Wade, but they wanted their voices heard.

“We can put some pressure on them,” said Sandra Harrington, 61, a retired public education administrator from Warrenton, Virginia. “I, unfortunately, do think it’s a done deal, and I’m terribly sad about that.”

USA TODAY contributed to this report. Contact city government watchdog Megan Banta at mbanta@registerguard.com Follow her on Twitter @MeganBanta_1.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Hundreds rally in Eugene to protest draft opinion overturning Roe