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

WASHINGTON, Might 14 (Reuters) - 1000's of abortion rights supporters rallied across america 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 in the past.

The protests kicked off what organizers predict will be a "summer of rage" ignited by the Could 2 disclosure of a draft opinion showing the court'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 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 virtually immediately ought to Roe be struck down. learn more

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"If you can't choose whether you want to have a child, if that is not a elementary proper, then I don't know what's," said Brita Van Rossum, 62, a landscape designer who traveled from suburban Philadelphia to join the abortion-rights rally in the nation's capital, her first ever.

Protesters marching underneath 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 galvanize assist for his or her celebration and blunt projected Republican good points in the November elections. read extra

The day's largest demonstration unfolded in Washington, where a crowd that organizers estimated at 20,000 people massed on the Washington Monument and braved a light-weight drizzle to march alongside the Nationwide Mall past the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Courtroom 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 bunch 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 2 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 at the crowd, and some referred to as out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

The rally appeared to stay otherwise peaceful, though at the least one counter-protester was seen being escorted away by a safety guard in Washington earlier in the day.

The temper was likewise energetic, and typically contentious, in New York Metropolis as thousands 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 a demonstration following the leaked Supreme Court docket opinion suggesting the possibility of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights resolution, in Washington, U.S., Could 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 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 docket draft opinion "treats women as objects, as less than full human beings."

Malcolm DeCesare, a 34-year-old important care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally under sunny skies, said abolishing the fitting to a authorized abortion could put lives at risk as ladies search unsafe options.

Movie star girls's rights lawyer Gloria Allred told the gang about her own "again alley abortion" as a younger lady when she became pregnant from a rape at gunpoint before Roe. "I almost died," she recounted. "I used to be left in a bathtub in a pool of my very own blood, hemorrhaging."

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

Casten, whose district contains Chicago's western suburbs, told Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Courtroom's conservative majority would think about taking away the fitting to an abortion and "condemn ladies to this lesser standing."

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 couple of dozen counter-protesters stood on a close-by sidewalk.

Holding an indication that learn, "Cease 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 just a small group, but his message was more powerful," Marshall mentioned.

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

Voters will be weighing a bunch of priorities comparable to inflation and may be skeptical of Democrats' potential to protect abortion entry after legislation that might enshrine abortion rights in federal regulation failed. read extra

A lot of these marching on Saturday expressed worry that rolling again abortion rights would lead to an erosion of civil liberties usually.

"That is simply an affront to all the pieces I imagine that we're imagined to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, stated. "If a woman 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; Further 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 Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Trust Ideas.