1000’s in U.S. march under ‘Ban Off 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 may soon overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion nationwide a half century in the past.

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

The court docket's ultimate ruling, which could return the ability to ban abortion to state legislatures, is anticipated in June. About half of the 50 states are poised to ban or severely limit abortion virtually instantly should Roe be struck down. learn more

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"If you cannot select whether or not you want to have a child, if that's not a fundamental right, then I do not know what is," mentioned Brita Van Rossum, 62, a panorama designer who traveled from suburban Philadelphia to affix the abortion-rights rally in the nation's capital, her first ever.

Protesters marching beneath the slogan "Bans Off 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 help provoke support for their occasion and blunt projected Republican good points in 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 on the Washington Monument and braved a light-weight drizzle to march alongside 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 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 "Women's rights begin within the womb."

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

The rally appeared to remain otherwise peaceful, though no less than 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 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 participate in an indication following the leaked Supreme Court docket opinion suggesting the potential for overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights determination, in Washington, U.S., Might 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Cops arrived to keep up area between the two groups as they traded taunts and vulgarities. The gang 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, mentioned that the leaked Supreme Courtroom draft opinion "treats women as objects, as lower 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 proper to a legal abortion may put lives at risk as ladies seek unsafe alternatives.

Celebrity ladies's rights legal professional Gloria Allred informed the gang about her own "again alley abortion" as a younger woman when she became pregnant from a rape at gunpoint before Roe. "I virtually died," she recounted. "I was left in a bathtub in a pool of my very own blood, hemorrhaging."

U.S. Representative Sean Casten and his 15-year-old daughter, Audrey, were among several 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 Courtroom's conservative majority would contemplate 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, while a couple of dozen counter-protesters stood on a nearby sidewalk.

Holding an indication that learn, "Stop Little one 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 extra highly effective," Marshall stated.

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

Voters can be weighing a host of priorities corresponding to inflation and may be skeptical of Democrats' capability to guard abortion access after laws that will enshrine abortion rights in federal law failed. read extra

A lot of those marching on Saturday expressed fear that rolling back abortion rights would lead to an erosion of civil liberties typically.

"That is just an affront to every little thing I consider that we're presupposed to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, mentioned. "If a lady has no management over what will 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; Modifying by Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Osterman, Mark Porter and Grant McCool

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Belief Ideas.