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

WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) - Thousands of abortion rights supporters rallied across the USA on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Courtroom might quickly overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade choice 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 Could 2 disclosure of a draft opinion showing the courtroom's conservative majority ready to reverse the 1973 ruling that established a lady's constitutional proper to terminate her pregnancy.

The court docket's final 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 restrict abortion almost instantly should Roe be struck down. learn more

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"If you can't select whether you want to have a child, if that's not a fundamental proper, then I do not know what is," stated Brita Van Rossum, 62, a panorama designer who traveled from suburban Philadelphia to affix 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 show of shock that Democrats hope will assist provoke assist for their get together and blunt projected Republican positive factors within 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 light drizzle to march along the National Mall past the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Courtroom itself.

The rally erupted in shouts of "Shame" 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 signs that read: "Finish abortion violence" and "Ladies's rights begin in the womb."

The encounter between the 2 sides grew tense at times. Abortion rights protesters shouted, “Go home!,” 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 referred to as out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

The rally appeared to remain otherwise peaceable, although no less than one counter-protester was seen being escorted away by a safety guard in Washington earlier within 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 have been confronted by a half dozen anti-abortion activists.

Abortion rights campaigners take part in an illustration following the leaked Supreme Court opinion suggesting the opportunity of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights choice, in Washington, U.S., Might 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Law enforcement officials arrived to take care of area between the 2 groups 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 Court docket draft opinion "treats women as objects, as less than full human beings."

Malcolm DeCesare, a 34-year-old essential care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally beneath sunny skies, said abolishing the best to a authorized abortion may put lives at risk as ladies seek unsafe alternatives.

Celebrity women's rights attorney Gloria Allred advised the crowd about her own "back alley abortion" as a younger woman when she grew to become pregnant from a rape at gunpoint earlier than Roe. "I virtually died," she recounted. "I used to be left in a bathtub in a pool of my very own blood, hemorrhaging."

U.S. Consultant Sean Casten and his 15-year-old daughter, Audrey, had been amongst a number of thousand abortion rights supporters who gathered at a park in Chicago.

Casten, whose district consists of Chicago's western suburbs, advised Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Court's conservative majority would take into account taking away the best to an abortion and "condemn girls to this lesser status."

At an abortion rights protest in Atlanta, greater than 400 people had assembled in a small park in front of the state capitol, while a few 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 well being graduate from Kennesaw State College, acknowledged her group's smaller turnout.

"Jesus had only a small group, however his message was more powerful," Marshall mentioned.

While the Supreme Courtroom 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 resembling inflation and may be skeptical of Democrats' skill to protect abortion entry after legislation that may enshrine abortion rights in federal law failed. learn more

Many of these marching on Saturday expressed concern that rolling back abortion rights would lead to an erosion of civil liberties typically.

"This is simply an affront to everything I consider that we're alleged to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, mentioned. "If a woman has no control over what will occur to her personal 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 Wealthy 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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