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

WASHINGTON, Might 14 (Reuters) - 1000's of abortion rights supporters rallied across the US on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Courtroom could soon overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion nationwide a half century in the past.

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

The court docket's remaining 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 restrict abortion nearly immediately ought to 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 is not a elementary 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 within the nation's capital, her first ever.

Protesters marching beneath 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 outrage that Democrats hope will help galvanize assist for his or her get together and blunt projected Republican beneficial properties in the November elections. read extra

The day's largest demonstration unfolded in Washington, the place a crowd that organizers estimated at 20,000 people massed at the Washington Monument and braved a light-weight drizzle to march along the National Mall previous the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Court itself.

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

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

The encounter between the 2 sides grew tense at instances. Abortion rights protesters shouted, “Go residence!,” 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 on the crowd, and a few known as out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

The rally appeared to stay in any other case peaceable, although at 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 City as thousands of abortion rights supporters crossed the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan, the place they have been confronted by a half dozen anti-abortion activists.

Abortion rights campaigners participate in an illustration following the leaked Supreme Court opinion suggesting the potential of 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 take care of area between the 2 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 docket draft opinion "treats ladies as objects, as lower than full human beings."

Malcolm DeCesare, a 34-year-old crucial care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally below sunny skies, mentioned abolishing the best to a authorized abortion could put lives in danger as girls search unsafe options.

Movie star girls's rights lawyer Gloria Allred told the crowd about her personal "back alley abortion" as a younger lady when she grew to become pregnant from a rape at gunpoint before Roe. "I nearly died," she recounted. "I used to be left in a bathtub in a pool of my 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 consists of Chicago's western suburbs, instructed Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Court docket's conservative majority would consider taking away the suitable to an abortion and "condemn girls 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 a couple of dozen counter-protesters stood on a close-by sidewalk.

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

"Jesus had just a small group, however his message was more powerful," Marshall stated.

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

Voters might be weighing a host of priorities resembling inflation and could also be skeptical of Democrats' potential to guard abortion access after laws that may enshrine abortion rights in federal regulation failed. read more

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

"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 girl has no management 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; 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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