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

WASHINGTON, Could 14 (Reuters) - Thousands of abortion rights supporters rallied across the United States on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Court might quickly overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion nationwide a half century ago.

The protests kicked off what organizers predict will be a "summer time of rage" ignited by the Might 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 pregnancy.

The court docket'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 limit abortion almost immediately should Roe be struck down. learn extra

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"If you cannot choose whether or not you want to have a baby, if that's not a basic proper, then I don't know what's," mentioned Brita Van Rossum, 62, a panorama designer who traveled from suburban Philadelphia to affix the abortion-rights rally within the nation's capital, her first ever.

Protesters marching below the slogan "Bans Off Our Our bodies" took to the streets from New York and Atlanta to Chicago and Los Angeles in a show of shock that Democrats hope will help galvanize help for their social gathering and blunt projected Republican features within the November elections. read more

The day's largest demonstration unfolded in Washington, the place a crowd that organizers estimated at 20,000 folks massed at the Washington Monument and braved a lightweight drizzle to march along the National Mall previous the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Court docket itself.

The rally erupted in shouts of "Disgrace" and "Bans off our bodies" because the marchers neared the marbled columns of the courthouse.

Surrounded by police was a group of some dozen counter-demonstrators holding indicators that read: "Finish abortion violence" and "Girls's rights begin in the womb."

The encounter between the 2 sides grew tense at occasions. Abortion rights protesters shouted, “Go dwelling!,” 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 a few called out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

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

The temper was likewise energetic, and generally contentious, in New York City as hundreds 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 opinion suggesting the potential for overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision, in Washington, U.S., Might 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Law enforcement officials arrived to take care of space between the two teams as they traded taunts and vulgarities. The gang thinned out in early afternoon as rain fell over town.

Elizabeth Holtzman, an 80-year-old former congresswoman who represented New York from 1973 to 1981, stated 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 under sunny skies, stated abolishing the proper to a legal abortion might put lives in danger as girls search unsafe alternate options.

Movie star girls's rights lawyer Gloria Allred informed the group about her personal "back alley abortion" as a young woman when she became pregnant from a rape at gunpoint earlier than Roe. "I almost died," she recounted. "I used to be left in a tub in a pool of my own blood, hemorrhaging."

U.S. Consultant 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, informed Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Court's conservative majority would contemplate taking away the suitable to an abortion and "condemn women to this lesser standing."

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

Holding an indication that read, "Cease Child Sacrifice," 23-year-old Bria Marshall, a recent public health graduate from Kennesaw State College, acknowledged her group's smaller turnout.

"Jesus had just a small group, but his message was extra powerful," Marshall stated.

While the Supreme Courtroom 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 number of priorities corresponding to inflation and could also be skeptical of Democrats' skill to guard abortion access after laws that might enshrine abortion rights in federal regulation failed. learn more

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

"This is simply an affront to every little thing I consider that we're alleged to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, stated. "If a woman has no management over what's 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; 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; Modifying by Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Osterman, Mark Porter and Grant McCool

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.