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

WASHINGTON, Might 14 (Reuters) - Thousands of abortion rights supporters rallied throughout the US on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Court docket might 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 can be a "summer season of rage" ignited by the Might 2 disclosure of a draft opinion showing the court's conservative majority ready to reverse the 1973 ruling that established a lady's constitutional right to terminate her pregnancy.

The court's ultimate ruling, which may return the facility to ban abortion to state legislatures, is predicted in June. About half of the 50 states are poised to ban or severely limit abortion nearly instantly ought to Roe be struck down. learn extra

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"If you can't choose whether or not you want to have a child, if that is not a elementary proper, then I do not 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 beneath the slogan "Bans Off Our Bodies" took to the streets from New York and Atlanta to Chicago and Los Angeles in a show of concern that Democrats hope will help galvanize assist for his or her occasion and blunt projected Republican positive factors in the November elections. read extra

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

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

Surrounded by police was a group of a few dozen counter-demonstrators holding indicators that learn: "Finish abortion violence" and "Women's rights start within the womb."

The encounter between the two sides grew tense at times. Abortion rights protesters shouted, “Go house!,” 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 known as out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

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

The mood was likewise energetic, and sometimes contentious, in New York City as thousands of abortion rights supporters crossed the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan, where they were confronted by a half dozen anti-abortion activists.

Abortion rights campaigners take part in a demonstration following the leaked Supreme Court docket opinion suggesting the potential for overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision, in Washington, U.S., May 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Police officers arrived to keep up area between the 2 groups as they traded taunts and vulgarities. The group 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 women 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, said abolishing the right to a legal abortion might put lives in danger as ladies search unsafe options.

Movie star women's rights lawyer Gloria Allred instructed the crowd about her own "back alley abortion" as a younger woman when she turned pregnant from a rape at gunpoint earlier than Roe. "I nearly died," she recounted. "I was left in a bath in a pool of my very own blood, hemorrhaging."

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

Casten, whose district contains Chicago's western suburbs, informed Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Court docket's conservative majority would think about taking away the appropriate to an abortion and "condemn ladies 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 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 health graduate from Kennesaw State College, acknowledged her group's smaller turnout.

"Jesus had just a small group, but his message was extra powerful," Marshall mentioned.

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

Voters will probably be weighing a number of priorities corresponding to inflation and may be skeptical of Democrats' potential to guard abortion entry after legislation that will enshrine abortion rights in federal law failed. read more

Many of those marching on Saturday expressed worry that rolling again abortion rights would lead to an erosion of civil liberties usually.

"That is just an affront to all the things I consider that we're presupposed to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, said. "If a girl has no management over what's going to happen 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 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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