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

WASHINGTON, Could 14 (Reuters) - 1000's of abortion rights supporters rallied throughout the US on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Courtroom may quickly overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion nationwide a half century ago.

The protests kicked off what organizers predict shall be a "summer time of rage" ignited by the May 2 disclosure of a draft opinion exhibiting the courtroom's conservative majority ready to reverse the 1973 ruling that established a woman's constitutional proper to terminate her being pregnant.

The court docket's ultimate ruling, which may 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 prohibit abortion virtually instantly should Roe be struck down. read more

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"If you cannot choose whether or not you want to have a child, if that is 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 join the abortion-rights rally within the nation's capital, her first ever.

Protesters marching underneath the slogan "Bans Off 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 provoke support for his or her occasion and blunt projected Republican positive aspects in the November elections. learn more

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-weight drizzle to march along the Nationwide Mall previous 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 a few dozen counter-demonstrators holding signs that learn: "End abortion violence" and "Girls's rights begin in the womb."

The encounter between the two sides grew tense at occasions. Abortion rights protesters shouted, “Go residence!,” and one man whacked a counter-demonstrator in the head with his poster after profanities have been exchanged. As 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 a minimum of one counter-protester was seen being escorted away by a security guard in Washington earlier within the day.

The mood was likewise energetic, and typically contentious, in New York Metropolis as thousands 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 an illustration following the leaked Supreme Court opinion suggesting the opportunity of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights resolution, in Washington, U.S., Could 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Police officers arrived to maintain house between the two groups 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, said that the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion "treats ladies as objects, as less than full human beings."

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

Celeb ladies's rights lawyer Gloria Allred advised the crowd about her own "again alley abortion" as a young girl when she turned pregnant from a rape at gunpoint before Roe. "I virtually died," she recounted. "I used to be left in a bath in a pool of my own blood, hemorrhaging."

U.S. Representative Sean Casten and his 15-year-old daughter, Audrey, have been among 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 Court'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 individuals had assembled in a small park in entrance of the state capitol, whereas a few 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 only a small group, however his message was more highly effective," Marshall stated.

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

Voters will be weighing a bunch of priorities similar to inflation and may be skeptical of Democrats' potential to guard abortion access after legislation that will enshrine abortion rights in federal law failed. learn more

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

"This is just an affront to the whole lot I believe that we're purported to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, mentioned. "If a girl has no management over what will happen to her personal body, then we're again in 1850 not 1950.

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Reporting by Gabriella Borter in Washington; Extra 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; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Osterman, Mark Porter and Grant McCool

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Trust Rules.