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

WASHINGTON, Could 14 (Reuters) - Thousands of abortion rights supporters rallied throughout 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 can be a "summer of rage" ignited by the May 2 disclosure of a draft opinion showing the court's conservative majority ready to reverse the 1973 ruling that established a girl's constitutional right to terminate her pregnancy.

The court docket's remaining ruling, which might return the facility 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 instantly should Roe be struck down. learn extra

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"If you can't choose whether or not you need to have a child, if that is not a elementary proper, then I don't know what's," said 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 outrage that Democrats hope will assist galvanize support for their get together and blunt projected Republican gains within the November elections. learn extra

The day's largest demonstration unfolded in Washington, where 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 previous the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Court docket 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 bunch of a few dozen counter-demonstrators holding signs that read: "End 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 with his poster after profanities were exchanged. Because the-anti abortion protesters left, they waved at the crowd, and a few known as out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

The rally appeared to stay otherwise peaceable, though no less than one counter-protester was seen being escorted away by a safety guard in Washington earlier in the day.

The mood was likewise energetic, and typically contentious, in New York Metropolis 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 take part in an indication following the leaked Supreme Courtroom opinion suggesting the possibility of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision, in Washington, U.S., Might 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Cops arrived to keep up house between the 2 teams as they traded taunts and vulgarities. The group 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 critical care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally below sunny skies, said abolishing the fitting to a authorized abortion might put lives at risk as ladies seek unsafe alternate options.

Movie star girls's rights lawyer Gloria Allred informed the group about her own "back alley abortion" as a younger woman when she grew to become pregnant from a rape at gunpoint before Roe. "I almost died," she recounted. "I used to be left in a bath in a pool of my very own blood, hemorrhaging."

U.S. Consultant Sean Casten and his 15-year-old daughter, Audrey, have been amongst a number of thousand abortion rights supporters who gathered at a park in Chicago.

Casten, whose district includes Chicago's western suburbs, informed Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Courtroom's conservative majority would take into account taking away the correct to an abortion and "condemn girls to this lesser standing."

At an abortion rights protest in Atlanta, greater than 400 folks 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 Baby Sacrifice," 23-year-old Bria Marshall, a current public well being graduate from Kennesaw State University, acknowledged her group's smaller turnout.

"Jesus had just a small group, but his message was more highly effective," Marshall said.

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

Voters might be weighing a host of priorities corresponding to inflation and could also be skeptical of Democrats' skill to protect abortion entry after laws that would enshrine abortion rights in federal law failed. read more

Lots of these marching on Saturday expressed worry that rolling back abortion rights would result in an erosion of civil liberties typically.

"That is just an affront to every thing I believe that we're presupposed to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, mentioned. "If a girl has no control over what is going to occur to her own physique, 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 Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.