Hundreds in U.S. march underneath ‘Ban Off Our Our bodies’ banner for abortion rights

WASHINGTON, Might 14 (Reuters) - Thousands of abortion rights supporters rallied across the USA on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Court could soon overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion nationwide a half century in the past.

The protests kicked off what organizers predict shall be a "summer of rage" ignited by the May 2 disclosure of a draft opinion displaying the court's conservative majority ready to reverse the 1973 ruling that established a woman's constitutional right to terminate her being pregnant.

The court's remaining ruling, which might return the facility to ban abortion to state legislatures, is anticipated in June. About half of the 50 states are poised to ban or severely restrict abortion almost instantly ought to Roe be struck down. read more

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"If you can't choose whether you want to have a baby, if that is not a fundamental proper, then I don't know what is," said Brita Van Rossum, 62, a landscape designer who traveled from suburban Philadelphia to join the abortion-rights rally in the nation's capital, her first ever.

Protesters marching under the slogan "Bans Off Our Bodies" took to the streets from New York and Atlanta to Chicago and Los Angeles in a show of concern that Democrats hope will help provoke help for their occasion and blunt projected Republican beneficial properties within the November elections. learn extra

The day's largest demonstration unfolded in Washington, the place a crowd that organizers estimated at 20,000 people massed on the Washington Monument and braved a light drizzle to march along the Nationwide 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" as the marchers neared the marbled columns of the courthouse.

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

The encounter between the two sides grew tense at instances. Abortion rights protesters shouted, “Go residence!,” and one man whacked a counter-demonstrator in the head together with his poster after profanities had been exchanged. Because the-anti abortion protesters left, they waved on the crowd, and some known as out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

The rally appeared to remain otherwise peaceable, though not less than one counter-protester was seen being escorted away by a safety guard in Washington earlier within the day.

The mood was likewise energetic, and generally contentious, in New York Metropolis as thousands of abortion rights supporters crossed the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan, the place they have been confronted by a half dozen anti-abortion activists.

Abortion rights campaigners take part in a demonstration following the leaked Supreme Courtroom opinion suggesting the opportunity of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights resolution, in Washington, U.S., Could 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Law enforcement officials arrived to keep up house between the 2 groups as they traded taunts and vulgarities. The group 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, stated that the leaked Supreme Courtroom draft opinion "treats women as objects, as lower than full human beings."

Malcolm DeCesare, a 34-year-old important care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally under sunny skies, stated abolishing the precise to a authorized abortion may put lives at risk as ladies search unsafe options.

Superstar girls's rights legal professional Gloria Allred told the gang about her own "again alley abortion" as a young girl when she turned pregnant from a rape at gunpoint before Roe. "I almost died," she recounted. "I was left in a tub in a pool of my very own blood, hemorrhaging."

U.S. Consultant Sean Casten and his 15-year-old daughter, Audrey, had been amongst a number of thousand abortion rights supporters who gathered at a park in Chicago.

Casten, whose district contains Chicago's western suburbs, instructed Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Court docket's conservative majority would contemplate taking away the appropriate to an abortion and "condemn women to this lesser standing."

At an abortion rights protest in Atlanta, greater than 400 individuals had assembled in a small park in entrance of the state capitol, while a few dozen counter-protesters stood on a close-by sidewalk.

Holding an indication that read, "Cease Child Sacrifice," 23-year-old Bria Marshall, a latest public well being graduate from Kennesaw State College, acknowledged her group's smaller turnout.

"Jesus had only a small group, but his message was extra powerful," Marshall mentioned.

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

Voters will be weighing a number of priorities such as inflation and could also be skeptical of Democrats' capability to guard abortion access after laws that might enshrine abortion rights in federal legislation failed. read extra

Many of those marching on Saturday expressed concern that rolling back abortion rights would lead to an erosion of civil liberties generally.

"That is simply an affront to every part I imagine that we're purported to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, said. "If a lady has no control over what's going to occur to her own physique, 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; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Osterman, Mark Porter and Grant McCool

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.