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

WASHINGTON, Might 14 (Reuters) - Thousands of abortion rights supporters rallied throughout the USA on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Court docket might soon overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution 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's conservative majority ready to reverse the 1973 ruling that established a woman's constitutional proper to terminate her being pregnant.

The court's ultimate 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 nearly instantly ought to Roe be struck down. learn more

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"If you can't choose whether or not you want to have a baby, if that is not a elementary proper, then I don't know what is," said 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 below the slogan "Bans Off 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 help galvanize support for their social gathering and blunt projected Republican good points within the November elections. read more

The day's largest demonstration unfolded in Washington, where a crowd that organizers estimated at 20,000 individuals massed at the Washington Monument and braved a light-weight drizzle to march along the National Mall past the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Courtroom itself.

The rally erupted in shouts of "Shame" 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 indicators that read: "End abortion violence" and "Girls's rights start within the womb."

The encounter between the two sides grew tense at instances. Abortion rights protesters shouted, “Go house!,” and one man whacked a counter-demonstrator within the head with his poster after profanities were exchanged. As the-anti abortion protesters left, they waved on the crowd, and a few called out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

The rally appeared to remain in any other case peaceful, although at the least 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 Metropolis as 1000's 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 take part in an illustration following the leaked Supreme Court opinion suggesting the potential for overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights choice, in Washington, U.S., Could 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Cops arrived to keep up house between the two groups as they traded taunts and vulgarities. The group 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 Courtroom 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, mentioned abolishing the correct to a authorized abortion might put lives at risk as women search unsafe alternate options.

Superstar women's rights lawyer Gloria Allred told the crowd about her own "back alley abortion" as a young woman when she became pregnant from a rape at gunpoint before Roe. "I almost died," she recounted. "I used to be 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, had been among several thousand abortion rights supporters who gathered at a park in Chicago.

Casten, whose district includes Chicago's western suburbs, advised Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Court's conservative majority would contemplate taking away the precise to an abortion and "condemn ladies to this lesser status."

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

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

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

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

Voters will likely be weighing a number of priorities corresponding to inflation and could also be skeptical of Democrats' capacity to protect abortion access after laws that might enshrine abortion rights in federal legislation failed. read more

Lots of these marching on Saturday expressed concern that rolling back abortion rights would result in an erosion of civil liberties usually.

"That is just an affront to every part I imagine that we're speculated to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, mentioned. "If a lady has no management 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; 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

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Ideas.