Thousands in U.S. march under ‘Ban Off Our Bodies’ banner for abortion rights

WASHINGTON, Could 14 (Reuters) - Thousands of abortion rights supporters rallied throughout the US on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Courtroom may soon overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion nationwide a half century ago.

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 courtroom's conservative majority ready to reverse the 1973 ruling that established a woman's constitutional right to terminate her being pregnant.

The courtroom's last ruling, which could 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 prohibit abortion almost immediately ought to Roe be struck down. learn extra

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"If you can't select whether you need to have a baby, if that is not a basic proper, then I do not know what is," stated 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 under the slogan "Bans Off 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 help provoke help for his or her social gathering and blunt projected Republican positive factors within 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 on the Washington Monument and braved a light-weight drizzle to march along the Nationwide Mall past the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Court docket itself.

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

Surrounded by police was a gaggle of some dozen counter-demonstrators holding indicators that learn: "End abortion violence" and "Girls's rights begin in the womb."

The encounter between the 2 sides grew tense at times. Abortion rights protesters shouted, “Go dwelling!,” and one man whacked a counter-demonstrator within the head along with his poster after profanities have been exchanged. As the-anti abortion protesters left, they waved at the crowd, and a few known as out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

The rally appeared to stay otherwise peaceable, though 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 generally 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 take part 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., Could 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Police officers arrived to take care of house 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, mentioned that the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion "treats women as objects, as less than full human beings."

Malcolm DeCesare, a 34-year-old crucial care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally below sunny skies, stated abolishing the suitable to a authorized abortion might put lives in danger as women seek unsafe options.

Movie star girls's rights legal professional Gloria Allred advised the crowd about her own "again alley abortion" as a young lady when she became 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. Consultant Sean Casten and his 15-year-old daughter, Audrey, were amongst a number of 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 think about taking away the precise to an abortion and "condemn ladies to this lesser status."

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

Holding a sign that read, "Cease Youngster Sacrifice," 23-year-old Bria Marshall, a current public health graduate from Kennesaw State College, acknowledged her group's smaller turnout.

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

While 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 shall be weighing a number of priorities equivalent to inflation and could also be skeptical of Democrats' means to guard abortion entry after laws that would enshrine abortion rights in federal regulation failed. read extra

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

"That is just an affront to all the things I believe that we're purported to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, mentioned. "If a woman has no control over what is going to occur to her personal physique, 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; Enhancing by Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Osterman, Mark Porter and Grant McCool

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