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

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

The protests kicked off what organizers predict will be a "summer season of rage" ignited by the Could 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 courtroom's remaining 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 immediately ought to Roe be struck down. learn more

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"If you cannot choose whether or not you need to have a baby, if that's not a basic right, then I don't know what's," said Brita Van Rossum, 62, a landscape designer who traveled from suburban Philadelphia to affix the abortion-rights rally in the nation's capital, her first ever.

Protesters marching under 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 assist impress help for their occasion 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 individuals massed at the Washington Monument and braved a lightweight drizzle to march along the National Mall previous the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Court docket itself.

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

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

The encounter between the two sides grew tense at times. 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. As the-anti abortion protesters left, they waved on the crowd, and a few called out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

The rally appeared to remain in any other case peaceful, though no less than one counter-protester was seen being escorted away by a security guard in Washington earlier in the day.

The temper was likewise energetic, and sometimes contentious, in New York Metropolis as hundreds 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 opportunity of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision, in Washington, U.S., May 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 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 Court 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 below sunny skies, said abolishing the fitting to a authorized abortion could put lives in danger as ladies seek unsafe alternate options.

Celeb ladies's rights attorney Gloria Allred informed the group about her personal "again alley abortion" as a young woman when she became pregnant from a rape at gunpoint earlier than Roe. "I nearly died," she recounted. "I was left in a tub in a pool of my very own blood, hemorrhaging."

U.S. Consultant 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 contains Chicago's western suburbs, advised 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, whereas a few dozen counter-protesters stood on a close-by sidewalk.

Holding a sign that learn, "Stop 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 just a small group, but his message was more powerful," Marshall said.

While the Supreme Courtroom leak thrust abortion back to the forefront of U.S. politics, it was unclear how the problem will play out in the coming elections.

Voters will probably be weighing a host of priorities comparable to inflation and could also be skeptical of Democrats' means to protect abortion entry after legislation that would enshrine abortion rights in federal legislation failed. learn more

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

"This is simply an affront to all the things I consider that we're speculated to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, stated. "If a lady has no control over what is going to happen to her own body, then we're again in 1850 not 1950.

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Reporting by Gabriella Borter in Washington; Additional 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

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