1000’s in U.S. march beneath ‘Ban Off Our Bodies’ banner for abortion rights

WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) - 1000's of abortion rights supporters rallied across the USA on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Courtroom may soon overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade determination 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 court's conservative majority able to reverse the 1973 ruling that established a lady's constitutional proper to terminate her being pregnant.

The court docket's remaining ruling, which could return the power to ban abortion to state legislatures, is expected in June. About half of the 50 states are poised to ban or severely restrict abortion nearly instantly should Roe be struck down. read extra

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"If you cannot select whether or not you wish to have a child, if that's 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 affix the abortion-rights rally in the nation's capital, her first ever.

Protesters marching below 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 their party and blunt projected Republican features 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 Nationwide Mall past the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Courtroom itself.

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

Surrounded by police was a bunch of some dozen counter-demonstrators holding indicators 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 home!,” and one man whacked a counter-demonstrator within the head with his poster after profanities had been exchanged. Because the-anti abortion protesters left, they waved at the crowd, and some called out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

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

The temper was likewise energetic, and typically contentious, in New York City 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 Courtroom opinion suggesting the potential for overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights determination, in Washington, U.S., May 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Cops arrived to keep up area between the two teams as they traded taunts and vulgarities. The group 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, said that the leaked Supreme Courtroom draft opinion "treats ladies as objects, as lower than full human beings."

Malcolm DeCesare, a 34-year-old essential care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally underneath sunny skies, mentioned abolishing the appropriate to a authorized abortion might put lives at risk as ladies seek unsafe alternate options.

Superstar girls's rights legal professional Gloria Allred instructed the gang about her personal "again alley abortion" as a young woman when she grew to become pregnant from a rape at gunpoint earlier than Roe. "I nearly died," she recounted. "I used to be 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, have been among several thousand abortion rights supporters who gathered at a park in Chicago.

Casten, whose district includes Chicago's western suburbs, informed Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Court's conservative majority would consider taking away the suitable to an abortion and "condemn ladies to this lesser status."

At an abortion rights protest in Atlanta, more than 400 individuals had assembled in a small park in entrance of the state capitol, whereas a couple of dozen counter-protesters stood on a nearby sidewalk.

Holding an indication that learn, "Stop Baby 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, however his message was more powerful," Marshall mentioned.

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

Voters will likely be weighing a host of priorities such as inflation and could also be skeptical of Democrats' ability to guard abortion access after laws that might enshrine abortion rights in federal regulation failed. learn more

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

"This is just an affront to all the pieces I believe that we're alleged to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, said. "If a lady has no control over what's going to occur to her own 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

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