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

WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) - Thousands of abortion rights supporters rallied throughout the US on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Court might soon overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion nationwide a half century ago.

The protests kicked off what organizers predict will be a "summer season of rage" ignited by the Might 2 disclosure of a draft opinion exhibiting the courtroom's conservative majority able to reverse the 1973 ruling that established a lady's constitutional right to terminate her being pregnant.

The court's remaining ruling, which may 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 almost instantly ought to Roe be struck down. learn extra

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"If you cannot select whether you wish to have a baby, if that is not a basic right, then I don't know what's," stated 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 present of concern that Democrats hope will assist impress support for his or her social gathering and blunt projected Republican gains in the November elections. learn extra

The day's largest demonstration unfolded in Washington, the place a crowd that organizers estimated at 20,000 individuals massed at the Washington Monument and braved a lightweight 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 group of a few dozen counter-demonstrators holding indicators that learn: "Finish abortion violence" and "Ladies's rights begin within the womb."

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

The rally appeared to remain in any other case peaceable, although a minimum of one counter-protester was seen being escorted away by a safety guard in Washington earlier within the day.

The mood was likewise energetic, and typically contentious, in New York City as thousands 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 a demonstration following the leaked Supreme Court opinion suggesting the opportunity of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights resolution, in Washington, U.S., Could 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Law enforcement officials arrived to maintain area between the 2 teams as they traded taunts and vulgarities. The gang 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 Court docket draft opinion "treats girls as objects, as less than full human beings."

Malcolm DeCesare, a 34-year-old important care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally underneath sunny skies, stated abolishing the proper to a authorized abortion could put lives in danger as women search unsafe options.

Celebrity women's rights legal professional Gloria Allred instructed the gang about her own "back alley abortion" as a younger woman when she turned pregnant from a rape at gunpoint earlier than Roe. "I nearly died," she recounted. "I used to be left in a bathtub in a pool of my own blood, hemorrhaging."

U.S. Consultant Sean Casten and his 15-year-old daughter, Audrey, had been amongst several 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 Courtroom's conservative majority would contemplate taking away the right to an abortion and "condemn women to this lesser status."

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

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

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

Whereas the Supreme Courtroom 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 can be weighing a bunch of priorities such as inflation and could also be skeptical of Democrats' capability to guard abortion access after laws that may enshrine abortion rights in federal law failed. read more

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

"This is just an affront to every thing I believe that we're purported to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, mentioned. "If a lady has no management over what is going to happen to her own body, then we're back 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; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Osterman, Mark Porter and Grant McCool

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.