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

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

The protests kicked off what organizers predict will probably be a "summer season of rage" ignited by the May 2 disclosure of a draft opinion exhibiting the court docket's conservative majority able to reverse the 1973 ruling that established a woman's constitutional right to terminate her pregnancy.

The court's last ruling, which may return the power to ban abortion to state legislatures, is predicted in June. About half of the 50 states are poised to ban or severely restrict abortion nearly instantly ought to Roe be struck down. read more

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"If you can't select whether you need to have a child, if that's not a fundamental proper, then I do not know what's," stated Brita Van Rossum, 62, a panorama 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 Our bodies" took to the streets from New York and Atlanta to Chicago and Los Angeles in a present of outrage that Democrats hope will assist impress support for his or her get together and blunt projected Republican features in the November elections. learn more

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

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

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

The encounter between the two sides grew tense at times. Abortion rights protesters shouted, “Go home!,” and one man whacked a counter-demonstrator within the head together with his poster after profanities were exchanged. Because the-anti abortion protesters left, they waved at the crowd, and some known 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 security guard in Washington earlier within the day.

The temper was likewise energetic, and sometimes contentious, in New York Metropolis as 1000's 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 possibility of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights determination, in Washington, U.S., Might 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Police officers arrived to keep up area 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, said that the leaked Supreme Courtroom draft opinion "treats girls as objects, as lower than full human beings."

Malcolm DeCesare, a 34-year-old vital care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally underneath sunny skies, mentioned abolishing the best to a legal abortion may put lives at risk as ladies seek unsafe options.

Movie star girls's rights lawyer Gloria Allred informed the gang about her personal "again alley abortion" as a young girl when she became pregnant from a rape at gunpoint earlier than 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 contains Chicago's western suburbs, told Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Courtroom's conservative majority would think about taking away the suitable to an abortion and "condemn women 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 couple of dozen counter-protesters stood on a close-by sidewalk.

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

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

While 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 will probably be weighing a bunch of priorities corresponding to inflation and may be skeptical of Democrats' potential to guard abortion access after laws that will enshrine abortion rights in federal regulation failed. read extra

A lot of these marching on Saturday expressed worry that rolling back abortion rights would lead to an erosion of civil liberties usually.

"This is simply an affront to the whole lot I imagine that we're purported to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, said. "If a woman has no control over what is going to happen to her personal body, then we're back 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 Rich McKay in Atlanta; Writing by Ted Hesson and Steve Gorman; Enhancing by Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Osterman, Mark Porter and Grant McCool

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