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

WASHINGTON, Could 14 (Reuters) - Thousands of abortion rights supporters rallied throughout the United States on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Court docket could quickly overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion nationwide a half century ago.

The protests kicked off what organizers predict will probably be a "summer time of rage" ignited by the Could 2 disclosure of a draft opinion exhibiting the courtroom's conservative majority ready to reverse the 1973 ruling that established a lady's constitutional proper to terminate her pregnancy.

The court's remaining ruling, which could 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 nearly immediately should Roe be struck down. read more

Register

"If you cannot select whether you need to have a child, if that's not a elementary right, then I don't know what is," said Brita Van Rossum, 62, a landscape designer who traveled from suburban Philadelphia to affix the abortion-rights rally in 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 show of shock that Democrats hope will assist galvanize assist for their social gathering and blunt projected Republican gains within 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 light-weight drizzle to march along the Nationwide Mall past the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Courtroom 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 some dozen counter-demonstrators holding signs that read: "End abortion violence" and "Ladies's rights start within the womb."

The encounter between the two sides grew tense at occasions. 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 a few called out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

The rally appeared to remain otherwise peaceful, though no less than one counter-protester was seen being escorted away by a safety guard in Washington earlier in the day.

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

Abortion rights campaigners participate in an indication following the leaked Supreme Courtroom opinion suggesting the possibility of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights determination, in Washington, U.S., May 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

Learn Extra

Law enforcement officials arrived to maintain space between the 2 teams as they traded taunts and vulgarities. The gang 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 Court draft opinion "treats women 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, stated abolishing the suitable to a authorized abortion may put lives at risk as ladies seek unsafe alternatives.

Superstar girls's rights lawyer Gloria Allred advised the group about her personal "again alley abortion" as a young lady when she became pregnant from a rape at gunpoint before 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. Consultant Sean Casten and his 15-year-old daughter, Audrey, have been among a number of thousand abortion rights supporters who gathered at a park in Chicago.

Casten, whose district consists of Chicago's western suburbs, told Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Court's conservative majority would consider taking away the proper to an abortion and "condemn women to this lesser standing."

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

Holding a sign that learn, "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, but his message was extra powerful," Marshall said.

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

Voters will probably be weighing a bunch of priorities akin to inflation and may be skeptical of Democrats' skill to protect abortion entry after laws that would enshrine abortion rights in federal legislation failed. read extra

Many of those marching on Saturday expressed worry that rolling again abortion rights would lead to an erosion of civil liberties typically.

"That is simply an affront to everything I imagine that we're imagined to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, stated. "If a woman has no management over what's going to occur to her own physique, then we're back in 1850 not 1950.

Register

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 Standards: The Thomson Reuters Belief Ideas.