1000’s in U.S. march underneath ‘Ban Off Our Bodies’ banner for abortion rights

WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) - Hundreds of abortion rights supporters rallied across the United States on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Court docket might quickly overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion nationwide a half century in the past.

The protests kicked off what organizers predict can be a "summer season of rage" ignited by the Could 2 disclosure of a draft opinion displaying the court docket's conservative majority ready to reverse the 1973 ruling that established a lady's constitutional proper to terminate her being pregnant.

The courtroom's ultimate ruling, which might return the power to ban abortion to state legislatures, is predicted in June. About half of the 50 states are poised to ban or severely prohibit abortion virtually immediately should Roe be struck down. read extra

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"If you cannot select whether or not you need to have a baby, if that is not a basic proper, then I do not know what is," mentioned Brita Van Rossum, 62, a panorama designer who traveled from suburban Philadelphia to join the abortion-rights rally within the nation's capital, her first ever.

Protesters marching under the slogan "Bans Off Our Our bodies" took to the streets from New York and Atlanta to Chicago and Los Angeles in a show of shock that Democrats hope will assist impress support for their occasion and blunt projected Republican positive aspects in the November elections. read extra

The day's largest demonstration unfolded in Washington, where a crowd that organizers estimated at 20,000 folks massed on the Washington Monument and braved a lightweight drizzle to march alongside the National Mall past the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Court docket itself.

The rally erupted in shouts of "Disgrace" and "Bans off our our bodies" because the marchers neared the marbled columns of the courthouse.

Surrounded by police was a bunch of some dozen counter-demonstrators holding indicators that learn: "End abortion violence" and "Women's rights start within the womb."

The encounter between the two sides grew tense at occasions. Abortion rights protesters shouted, “Go home!,” and one man whacked a counter-demonstrator within the head with his poster after profanities have been exchanged. As the-anti abortion protesters left, they waved on the crowd, and some called out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

The rally appeared to stay in any other case peaceable, though at the very least one counter-protester was seen being escorted away by a security guard in Washington earlier in the day.

The temper was likewise energetic, and typically contentious, in New York City as 1000's of abortion rights supporters crossed the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan, the place they had been confronted by a half dozen anti-abortion activists.

Abortion rights campaigners participate in a demonstration following the leaked Supreme Court opinion suggesting the opportunity of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision, in Washington, U.S., May 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Cops arrived to keep up area between the 2 teams as they traded taunts and vulgarities. The crowd thinned out in early afternoon as rain fell over the town.

Elizabeth Holtzman, an 80-year-old former congresswoman who represented New York from 1973 to 1981, mentioned that the leaked Supreme Courtroom draft opinion "treats women as objects, as lower than full human beings."

Malcolm DeCesare, a 34-year-old crucial care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally below sunny skies, mentioned abolishing the fitting to a authorized abortion might put lives in danger as girls search unsafe alternate options.

Movie star ladies's rights lawyer Gloria Allred informed the group about her own "back alley abortion" as a young lady when she turned pregnant from a rape at gunpoint before Roe. "I nearly died," she recounted. "I was left in a bath in a pool of my own blood, hemorrhaging."

U.S. Consultant Sean Casten and his 15-year-old daughter, Audrey, were among several thousand abortion rights supporters who gathered at a park in Chicago.

Casten, whose district includes Chicago's western suburbs, told Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Court docket's conservative majority would contemplate taking away the proper to an abortion and "condemn ladies to this lesser status."

At an abortion rights protest in Atlanta, greater than 400 folks had assembled in a small park in front of the state capitol, whereas about a dozen counter-protesters stood on a nearby sidewalk.

Holding an indication that read, "Stop Youngster Sacrifice," 23-year-old Bria Marshall, a current public well being graduate from Kennesaw State University, acknowledged her group's smaller turnout.

"Jesus had only a small group, however his message was extra highly effective," Marshall said.

Whereas the Supreme Courtroom leak thrust abortion again to the forefront of U.S. politics, it was unclear how the problem will play out in the coming elections.

Voters can be weighing a bunch of priorities similar to inflation and could also be skeptical of Democrats' skill to guard abortion access after laws that might enshrine abortion rights in federal law failed. learn extra

Lots of these marching on Saturday expressed concern that rolling again abortion rights would result in an erosion of civil liberties generally.

"This is simply an affront to all the things I imagine that we're speculated to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, said. "If a girl has no control over what is going to occur to her personal body, then we're again in 1850 not 1950.

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Reporting by Gabriella Borter in Washington; Additional reporting by Eric Cox in Chicago, Maria Caspani in New York, Costas Pitas in Los Angeles and Wealthy McKay in Atlanta; Writing by Ted Hesson and Steve Gorman; Modifying by Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Osterman, Mark Porter and Grant McCool

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.