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

WASHINGTON, Might 14 (Reuters) - Hundreds of abortion rights supporters rallied across the US on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Courtroom may quickly overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision 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 exhibiting the courtroom's conservative majority ready to reverse the 1973 ruling that established a girl's constitutional proper to terminate her pregnancy.

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

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"If you can't select whether you wish to have a child, if that is not a fundamental right, then I do not know what's," mentioned Brita Van Rossum, 62, a panorama designer who traveled from suburban Philadelphia to hitch 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 show of concern that Democrats hope will help galvanize help for his or her get together and blunt projected Republican good points in the November elections. read more

The day's largest demonstration unfolded in Washington, where a crowd that organizers estimated at 20,000 people massed at the Washington Monument and braved a lightweight drizzle to march along the National Mall past the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Court 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: "End abortion violence" and "Girls's rights begin in the womb."

The encounter between the 2 sides grew tense at occasions. 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 called out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

The rally appeared to remain in any other case peaceful, although no less than one counter-protester was seen being escorted away by a safety guard in Washington earlier in 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, where they had been confronted by a half dozen anti-abortion activists.

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

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Police officers arrived to take care of area between the two teams 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, mentioned that the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion "treats women as objects, as lower than full human beings."

Malcolm DeCesare, a 34-year-old important care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally under sunny skies, mentioned abolishing the fitting to a authorized abortion may put lives at risk as ladies search unsafe options.

Movie star ladies's rights attorney Gloria Allred instructed the crowd about her personal "back alley abortion" as a young woman when she became pregnant from a rape at gunpoint before Roe. "I virtually died," she recounted. "I was left in a bath 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 contains Chicago's western suburbs, informed Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Courtroom's conservative majority would contemplate taking away the correct to an abortion and "condemn girls to this lesser status."

At an abortion rights protest in Atlanta, greater than 400 folks 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, "Stop Little one Sacrifice," 23-year-old Bria Marshall, a current 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 stated.

Whereas the Supreme Court 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 bunch of priorities comparable to inflation and may be skeptical of Democrats' capacity to protect abortion entry after legislation that might enshrine abortion rights in federal law failed. read extra

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

"This is simply an affront to every little thing I believe that we're supposed to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, mentioned. "If a lady has no management over what will happen to her own physique, then we're back in 1850 not 1950.

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Reporting by Gabriella Borter in Washington; Extra 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 Ideas.