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

WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) - 1000's of abortion rights supporters rallied throughout the USA on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Court may quickly 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 time of rage" ignited by the May 2 disclosure of a draft opinion displaying the court docket's conservative majority ready to reverse the 1973 ruling that established a lady's constitutional proper to terminate her being pregnant.

The court's remaining ruling, which might 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 restrict abortion virtually instantly ought to Roe be struck down. read extra

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"If you can't select whether you want to have a child, if that is not a elementary proper, then I don't know what's," stated Brita Van Rossum, 62, a panorama designer who traveled from suburban Philadelphia to affix 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 shock that Democrats hope will assist impress assist for their social gathering 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 individuals massed at 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 "Shame" and "Bans off our bodies" as the marchers neared the marbled columns of the courthouse.

Surrounded by police was a gaggle of some dozen counter-demonstrators holding signs that learn: "End abortion violence" and "Girls's rights start in the womb."

The encounter between the 2 sides grew tense at instances. Abortion rights protesters shouted, “Go home!,” and one man whacked a counter-demonstrator within the head together with his poster after profanities were 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 peaceful, though a minimum of one counter-protester was seen being escorted away by a security guard in Washington earlier within the day.

The mood was likewise energetic, and sometimes contentious, in New York Metropolis as thousands of abortion rights supporters crossed the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan, the place 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 potential of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights determination, in Washington, U.S., Could 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Police officers arrived to maintain space between the two teams as they traded taunts and vulgarities. The group 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, mentioned that the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion "treats ladies as objects, as less than full human beings."

Malcolm DeCesare, a 34-year-old crucial care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally below sunny skies, stated abolishing the precise to a legal abortion might put lives at risk as girls seek unsafe options.

Movie star women's rights legal professional Gloria Allred advised the group about her personal "again alley abortion" as a young girl when she turned pregnant from a rape at gunpoint before Roe. "I almost 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, instructed Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Court docket's conservative majority would take into account taking away the fitting to an abortion and "condemn women 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, while a couple of dozen counter-protesters stood on a close-by sidewalk.

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

"Jesus had only a small group, however his message was extra powerful," Marshall mentioned.

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 in the coming elections.

Voters will likely be weighing a bunch of priorities such as inflation and may be skeptical of Democrats' capability to guard abortion entry after laws that will enshrine abortion rights in federal regulation failed. read more

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

"This is simply an affront to every part I consider that we're supposed to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, said. "If a woman has no management over what is going to happen 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 Rich 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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