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

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

The protests kicked off what organizers predict shall be a "summer season 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 woman's constitutional right to terminate her pregnancy.

The court's ultimate ruling, which could return the ability to ban abortion to state legislatures, is anticipated in June. About half of the 50 states are poised to ban or severely limit abortion nearly immediately ought to Roe be struck down. read extra

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"If you can't choose whether or not you wish to have a baby, if that's not a basic proper, then I do not know what's," said Brita Van Rossum, 62, a landscape designer who traveled from suburban Philadelphia to affix 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 shock that Democrats hope will help galvanize support for their get together and blunt projected Republican positive aspects in the November elections. learn 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 light drizzle to march along the Nationwide Mall past the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Court 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 gaggle of some dozen counter-demonstrators holding indicators that read: "End abortion violence" and "Ladies's rights begin 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 on the crowd, and some referred to as out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

The rally appeared to remain otherwise peaceable, although at the least 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 1000's 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 participate in an illustration following the leaked Supreme Court docket opinion suggesting the possibility of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights determination, in Washington, U.S., May 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Police officers arrived to take care of area between the 2 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, stated that the leaked Supreme Court docket draft opinion "treats women as objects, as lower than full human beings."

Malcolm DeCesare, a 34-year-old important care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally underneath sunny skies, mentioned abolishing the best to a legal abortion might put lives at risk as women search unsafe alternatives.

Celebrity women's rights attorney Gloria Allred instructed the gang about her own "again alley abortion" as a younger woman when she grew to become pregnant from a rape at gunpoint earlier than Roe. "I virtually died," she recounted. "I was 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 amongst a number of 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 suitable to an abortion and "condemn ladies to this lesser standing."

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

Holding a sign that read, "Stop Baby 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 extra highly effective," Marshall said.

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

Voters might be weighing a bunch of priorities equivalent to inflation and could also be skeptical of Democrats' capability to protect abortion entry after laws that would enshrine abortion rights in federal law failed. read extra

A lot of those marching on Saturday expressed concern that rolling again abortion rights would result in an erosion of civil liberties generally.

"This is simply an affront to every thing I imagine that we're alleged to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, mentioned. "If a woman has no control over what is going to occur to her personal 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 Rich McKay in Atlanta; Writing by Ted Hesson and Steve Gorman; Modifying by Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Osterman, Mark Porter and Grant McCool

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