1000’s in U.S. march below ‘Ban Off Our Bodies’ banner for abortion rights

WASHINGTON, Might 14 (Reuters) - Hundreds of abortion rights supporters rallied across the US on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Court could soon overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion nationwide a half century in the past.

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

The court's ultimate ruling, which might return the facility to ban abortion to state legislatures, is predicted in June. About half of the 50 states are poised to ban or severely limit abortion almost instantly should 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 fundamental proper, then I do not know what's," mentioned Brita Van Rossum, 62, a panorama 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 Bodies" took to the streets from New York and Atlanta to Chicago and Los Angeles in a present of outrage that Democrats hope will assist provoke assist for his or her get together and blunt projected Republican good points within the November elections. read extra

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 lightweight drizzle to march alongside the Nationwide Mall previous the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Court itself.

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

Surrounded by police was a bunch of some dozen counter-demonstrators holding indicators that read: "End abortion violence" and "Ladies's rights start within the womb."

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

The rally appeared to stay in any other case peaceable, although at the very least 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 Metropolis as thousands 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 an indication following the leaked Supreme Court docket opinion suggesting the potential for overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision, in Washington, U.S., Might 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Police officers arrived to keep up 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, stated that the leaked Supreme Courtroom draft opinion "treats girls as objects, as less than full human beings."

Malcolm DeCesare, a 34-year-old critical care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally beneath sunny skies, said abolishing the precise to a authorized abortion may put lives at risk as women search unsafe options.

Movie star women's rights lawyer Gloria Allred told the gang about her own "back alley abortion" as a young lady when she grew to become pregnant from a rape at gunpoint before Roe. "I virtually died," she recounted. "I was left in a bath in a pool of my own blood, hemorrhaging."

U.S. Representative Sean Casten and his 15-year-old daughter, Audrey, had 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, informed Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Courtroom's conservative majority would think about taking away the suitable to an abortion and "condemn ladies to this lesser standing."

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

Holding a sign that learn, "Cease Little one Sacrifice," 23-year-old Bria Marshall, a recent public health graduate from Kennesaw State University, acknowledged her group's smaller turnout.

"Jesus had just a small group, but his message was more powerful," Marshall said.

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

Voters will be weighing a host of priorities comparable to inflation and may be skeptical of Democrats' skill to protect abortion entry after legislation that may enshrine abortion rights in federal regulation failed. learn more

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

"That is just an affront to the whole lot I imagine that we're supposed to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, stated. "If a girl has no control over what will occur to her own physique, then we're back 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 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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