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

WASHINGTON, Might 14 (Reuters) - 1000's of abortion rights supporters rallied throughout the USA on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Court could quickly overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide a half century ago.

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

The courtroom's last ruling, which may return the ability to ban abortion to state legislatures, is predicted in June. About half of the 50 states are poised to ban or severely restrict abortion nearly immediately ought to Roe be struck down. learn extra

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

Protesters marching beneath 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 concern that Democrats hope will assist galvanize support for his or her get together and blunt projected Republican features 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 lightweight drizzle to march alongside the Nationwide Mall previous 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 gaggle of a few dozen counter-demonstrators holding signs that learn: "Finish abortion violence" and "Girls's rights start in the womb."

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

The rally appeared to stay otherwise peaceable, although a minimum of one counter-protester was seen being escorted away by a security guard in Washington earlier within the day.

The mood was likewise energetic, and sometimes contentious, in New York City as hundreds of abortion rights supporters crossed the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan, where they were confronted by a half dozen anti-abortion activists.

Abortion rights campaigners take part in an illustration following the leaked Supreme Court opinion suggesting the potential of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights resolution, in Washington, U.S., Might 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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

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 ladies as objects, as less than full human beings."

Malcolm DeCesare, a 34-year-old vital care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally beneath sunny skies, said abolishing the proper to a legal abortion may put lives in danger as women seek unsafe options.

Movie star girls's rights attorney Gloria Allred informed the gang about her personal "back alley abortion" as a young woman when she turned pregnant from a rape at gunpoint earlier than Roe. "I nearly died," she recounted. "I used to be left in a tub in a pool of my very own blood, hemorrhaging."

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

Casten, whose district consists of Chicago's western suburbs, instructed Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Courtroom's conservative majority would take into account taking away the suitable to an abortion and "condemn girls 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, whereas a few dozen counter-protesters stood on a nearby sidewalk.

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

"Jesus had just a small group, but 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 problem will play out in the coming elections.

Voters might be weighing a number of priorities resembling inflation and may be skeptical of Democrats' potential to guard abortion entry after laws that will enshrine abortion rights in federal regulation failed. read extra

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

"This is simply an affront to all the things I believe that we're imagined to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, mentioned. "If a woman has no control over what will occur to her own 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 Rich 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 Ideas.