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

WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) - 1000's of abortion rights supporters rallied throughout the USA on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Court docket may soon overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion nationwide a half century in the past.

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

The courtroom's ultimate ruling, which could 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 instantly ought to Roe be struck down. read more

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"If you cannot select whether or not you wish to have a child, if that's not a basic right, then I don't know what's," said 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 underneath 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 assist for his or her party and blunt projected Republican features within the November elections. read extra

The day's largest demonstration unfolded in Washington, where a crowd that organizers estimated at 20,000 individuals massed on the Washington Monument and braved a light 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 group of some dozen counter-demonstrators holding indicators that read: "End abortion violence" and "Women's rights begin in the womb."

The encounter between the two sides grew tense at instances. Abortion rights protesters shouted, “Go dwelling!,” and one man whacked a counter-demonstrator within the head together with his poster after profanities had been exchanged. Because the-anti abortion protesters left, they waved at the crowd, and some referred to as out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

The rally appeared to remain in any other case peaceable, although at least one counter-protester was seen being escorted away by a safety guard in Washington earlier in the day.

The mood was likewise energetic, and sometimes contentious, in New York Metropolis as thousands 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 participate in an indication following the leaked Supreme Court opinion suggesting the potential for overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights choice, in Washington, U.S., May 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Law enforcement officials arrived to keep up house between the two groups 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, mentioned that the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion "treats girls as objects, as less than full human beings."

Malcolm DeCesare, a 34-year-old crucial care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally under sunny skies, stated abolishing the appropriate to a authorized abortion might put lives in danger as ladies seek unsafe alternatives.

Celeb women's rights legal professional Gloria Allred told the crowd about her personal "again alley abortion" as a younger lady when she turned pregnant from a rape at gunpoint earlier than Roe. "I nearly died," she recounted. "I was left in a bathtub in a pool of my 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 contains Chicago's western suburbs, instructed Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Courtroom's conservative majority would consider taking away the suitable to an abortion and "condemn women 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, while about a dozen counter-protesters stood on a nearby sidewalk.

Holding a sign that read, "Cease Baby Sacrifice," 23-year-old Bria Marshall, a current public health graduate from Kennesaw State University, acknowledged her group's smaller turnout.

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

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 likely be weighing a bunch of priorities comparable to inflation and may be skeptical of Democrats' means to protect abortion access after laws that would enshrine abortion rights in federal regulation failed. learn extra

Many of those marching on Saturday expressed concern that rolling again abortion rights would result in an erosion of civil liberties generally.

"That is simply an affront to all the things I believe that we're speculated to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, stated. "If a girl 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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