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

WASHINGTON, Could 14 (Reuters) - Hundreds 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 choice 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 exhibiting the court's conservative majority ready to reverse the 1973 ruling that established a girl's constitutional proper to terminate her being pregnant.

The courtroom's last ruling, which may return the ability to ban abortion to state legislatures, is predicted in June. About half of the 50 states are poised to ban or severely restrict abortion almost immediately ought to Roe be struck down. learn extra

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"If you can't choose whether you wish to have a child, if that is not a elementary proper, then I do not know what's," mentioned Brita Van Rossum, 62, a landscape designer who traveled from suburban Philadelphia to join the abortion-rights rally within 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 present of shock that Democrats hope will help galvanize assist for his or her social gathering and blunt projected Republican positive aspects in the November elections. read more

The day's largest demonstration unfolded in Washington, where a crowd that organizers estimated at 20,000 individuals massed on the Washington Monument and braved a lightweight drizzle to march along the Nationwide Mall previous 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 some dozen counter-demonstrators holding signs that read: "Finish abortion violence" and "Girls's rights begin within the womb."

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

The rally appeared to stay in any other case peaceable, although at the least one counter-protester was seen being escorted away by a security guard in Washington earlier in the day.

The mood was likewise energetic, and typically contentious, in New York City as 1000's of abortion rights supporters crossed the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan, where they have been confronted by a half dozen anti-abortion activists.

Abortion rights campaigners take part in a demonstration following the leaked Supreme Courtroom opinion suggesting the opportunity of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights choice, in Washington, U.S., Might 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 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, said that the leaked Supreme Courtroom draft opinion "treats women as objects, as lower than full human beings."

Malcolm DeCesare, a 34-year-old essential care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally below sunny skies, mentioned abolishing the correct to a legal abortion might put lives in danger as ladies seek unsafe alternatives.

Movie star women's rights attorney Gloria Allred informed the gang about her own "again alley abortion" as a younger girl when she became pregnant from a rape at gunpoint earlier than Roe. "I virtually died," she recounted. "I used to be left in a bath in a pool of my own blood, hemorrhaging."

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

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

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

Holding an indication that read, "Stop Little one 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, however his message was more powerful," Marshall stated.

Whereas the Supreme Courtroom 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 number of priorities equivalent to inflation and may be skeptical of Democrats' means to protect abortion access after legislation that will enshrine abortion rights in federal legislation failed. read extra

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

"This is just an affront to all the things I imagine that we're speculated to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, stated. "If a woman has no control over what's 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 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 Trust Principles.