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

WASHINGTON, Could 14 (Reuters) - Thousands of abortion rights supporters rallied throughout the US on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Courtroom could quickly overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution 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 Might 2 disclosure of a draft opinion showing the court docket's conservative majority ready to reverse the 1973 ruling that established a lady's constitutional right to terminate her being pregnant.

The courtroom's final ruling, which may return the ability to ban abortion to state legislatures, is expected in June. About half of the 50 states are poised to ban or severely limit abortion almost immediately should Roe be struck down. learn more

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"If you can't select whether or not you wish to have a child, if that is not a elementary 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 present of concern that Democrats hope will help provoke support for their social gathering and blunt projected Republican good points in the November elections. learn more

The day's largest demonstration unfolded in Washington, where a crowd that organizers estimated at 20,000 people massed on the Washington Monument and braved a lightweight drizzle to march alongside the Nationwide Mall past the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Court docket 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 gaggle of a few dozen counter-demonstrators holding signs that read: "End 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 together with his poster after profanities have been exchanged. Because the-anti abortion protesters left, they waved on the crowd, and a few referred to as out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

The rally appeared to remain in any other case peaceable, though 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 typically contentious, in New York Metropolis as hundreds of abortion rights supporters crossed the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan, the place they have been confronted by a half dozen anti-abortion activists.

Abortion rights campaigners participate in a demonstration following the leaked Supreme Court opinion suggesting the potential of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights resolution, in Washington, U.S., Might 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Law enforcement officials arrived to maintain space between the 2 teams as they traded taunts and vulgarities. The crowd 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 girls as objects, as less than full human beings."

Malcolm DeCesare, a 34-year-old vital care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally beneath sunny skies, said abolishing the suitable to a authorized abortion could put lives at risk as ladies search unsafe alternate options.

Superstar ladies's rights legal professional Gloria Allred informed the crowd about her own "again alley abortion" as a young girl when she became 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 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 includes Chicago's western suburbs, instructed Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Courtroom's conservative majority would take into account taking away the fitting to an abortion and "condemn girls to this lesser status."

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

Holding a sign that learn, "Cease Little one Sacrifice," 23-year-old Bria Marshall, a latest public well being graduate from Kennesaw State College, acknowledged her group's smaller turnout.

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

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

Voters might be weighing a number of priorities akin to inflation and may be skeptical of Democrats' means to guard abortion access after legislation that will enshrine abortion rights in federal regulation failed. learn extra

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

"This is simply an affront to all the pieces I believe that we're supposed to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, said. "If a girl has no management over what is going to occur 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 Wealthy McKay in Atlanta; Writing by Ted Hesson and Steve Gorman; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Osterman, Mark Porter and Grant McCool

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