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

WASHINGTON, Might 14 (Reuters) - 1000's of abortion rights supporters rallied across the United States on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Court docket might soon overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide a half century ago.

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

The courtroom's remaining ruling, which might return the power 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 select whether you want to have a child, if that is not a basic proper, then I don't know what is," said Brita Van Rossum, 62, a panorama designer who traveled from suburban Philadelphia to join the abortion-rights rally in 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 help for his or her celebration and blunt projected Republican good points 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 lightweight drizzle to march along the Nationwide Mall previous the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Court docket 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 bunch of a few dozen counter-demonstrators holding indicators that learn: "Finish abortion violence" and "Women's rights begin within the womb."

The encounter between the 2 sides grew tense at times. Abortion rights protesters shouted, “Go house!,” and one man whacked a counter-demonstrator in the head along with his poster after profanities have been exchanged. As the-anti abortion protesters left, they waved on the crowd, and some known 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 sometimes contentious, in New York Metropolis as 1000's of abortion rights supporters crossed the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan, the place they were confronted by a half dozen anti-abortion activists.

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

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Cops arrived to maintain area between the two groups as they traded taunts and vulgarities. The gang 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 girls as objects, as lower than full human beings."

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

Superstar ladies's rights lawyer Gloria Allred instructed the crowd about her own "again alley abortion" as a younger woman when she became pregnant from a rape at gunpoint earlier than Roe. "I almost died," she recounted. "I used to be left in a bathtub in a pool of my own blood, hemorrhaging."

U.S. Representative Sean Casten and his 15-year-old daughter, Audrey, had been among a number of 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 consider taking away the right to an abortion and "condemn women to this lesser status."

At an abortion rights protest in Atlanta, more than 400 people had assembled in a small park in entrance of the state capitol, while about a dozen counter-protesters stood on a close-by sidewalk.

Holding an indication that read, "Cease Little one Sacrifice," 23-year-old Bria Marshall, a recent public health 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 mentioned.

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 bunch of priorities reminiscent of inflation and could also be skeptical of Democrats' means to guard abortion entry after legislation that might enshrine abortion rights in federal regulation failed. learn more

A lot of these marching on Saturday expressed concern that rolling back abortion rights would result in an erosion of civil liberties generally.

"That is just an affront to every little thing I imagine that we're presupposed to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, said. "If a woman 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; Additional 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

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.