Hundreds in U.S. march below ‘Ban Off Our Bodies’ banner for abortion rights

WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) - 1000's of abortion rights supporters rallied across the United States on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Court docket may quickly overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide a half century in the past.

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

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

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"If you can't select whether or not you want to have a child, if that is not a basic right, then I don't know what's," mentioned Brita Van Rossum, 62, a landscape designer who traveled from suburban Philadelphia to hitch the abortion-rights rally in the nation's capital, her first ever.

Protesters marching below the slogan "Bans Off Our Our bodies" took to the streets from New York and Atlanta to Chicago and Los Angeles in a present of outrage that Democrats hope will help provoke support for their social gathering and blunt projected Republican positive factors in the November elections. learn more

The day's largest demonstration unfolded in Washington, the place a crowd that organizers estimated at 20,000 people massed at the Washington Monument and braved a light 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 bodies" because the marchers neared the marbled columns of the courthouse.

Surrounded by police was a group of a few dozen counter-demonstrators holding signs that read: "Finish abortion violence" and "Ladies's rights start in the womb."

The encounter between the 2 sides grew tense at instances. Abortion rights protesters shouted, “Go house!,” and one man whacked a counter-demonstrator within the head along with his poster after profanities had been exchanged. Because the-anti abortion protesters left, they waved on the crowd, and some referred to as out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

The rally appeared to stay in any other case peaceable, though at the 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 generally contentious, in New York Metropolis as 1000's of abortion rights supporters crossed the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan, the place they were confronted by a half dozen anti-abortion activists.

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

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Law enforcement officials arrived to keep up space between the 2 groups as they traded taunts and vulgarities. The crowd thinned out in early afternoon as rain fell over the city.

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

Malcolm DeCesare, a 34-year-old vital care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally under sunny skies, said abolishing the fitting to a legal abortion could put lives at risk as ladies seek unsafe options.

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

U.S. Representative 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 contains Chicago's western suburbs, informed Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Court docket's conservative majority would contemplate taking away the precise to an abortion and "condemn women to this lesser status."

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

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

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

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

Voters might be weighing a host of priorities corresponding to inflation and may be skeptical of Democrats' skill to guard abortion access after legislation that will enshrine abortion rights in federal regulation failed. learn extra

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

"That is simply an affront to the whole lot I imagine that we're imagined to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, stated. "If a lady has no control over what will happen to her personal body, then we're again in 1850 not 1950.

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Reporting by Gabriella Borter in Washington; Extra 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

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