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

WASHINGTON, Could 14 (Reuters) - 1000's of abortion rights supporters rallied across the United States on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Courtroom could soon overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion nationwide a half century ago.

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

The court's closing ruling, which may 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 limit abortion almost immediately ought to Roe be struck down. learn extra

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"If you cannot choose whether or not you wish to have a child, if that is not a fundamental right, then I don't know what's," said 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 present of outrage that Democrats hope will help galvanize support for their occasion and blunt projected Republican gains in the November elections. read extra

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 alongside the Nationwide Mall previous the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Court itself.

The rally erupted in shouts of "Shame" and "Bans off 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: "Finish abortion violence" and "Women's rights begin within the womb."

The encounter between the two sides grew tense at instances. Abortion rights protesters shouted, “Go dwelling!,” and one man whacked a counter-demonstrator in the head with his poster after profanities had been exchanged. Because the-anti abortion protesters left, they waved on the crowd, and some known as out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

The rally appeared to remain in any other case peaceful, although at the 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 sometimes contentious, in New York Metropolis as 1000's of abortion rights supporters crossed the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan, where they have been confronted by a half dozen anti-abortion activists.

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

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

Malcolm DeCesare, a 34-year-old critical care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally under sunny skies, mentioned abolishing the correct to a authorized abortion could put lives at risk as girls search unsafe alternate options.

Movie star girls's rights legal professional Gloria Allred advised the crowd about her personal "again alley abortion" as a younger lady when she grew to become pregnant from a rape at gunpoint before Roe. "I almost died," she recounted. "I was left in a bathtub in a pool of my own blood, hemorrhaging."

U.S. Representative 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, advised Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Court's conservative majority would contemplate taking away the best to an abortion and "condemn girls to this lesser standing."

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 close-by sidewalk.

Holding an indication that read, "Cease Little one Sacrifice," 23-year-old Bria Marshall, a latest public well being graduate from Kennesaw State University, acknowledged her group's smaller turnout.

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

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

Voters can be weighing a number of priorities similar to inflation and may be skeptical of Democrats' capability to protect abortion entry after laws that may enshrine abortion rights in federal legislation failed. read more

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

"This is just an affront to every part I consider that we're presupposed to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, said. "If a lady has no management over what's going to happen to her own physique, 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 Rich McKay in Atlanta; Writing by Ted Hesson and Steve Gorman; Enhancing by Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Osterman, Mark Porter and Grant McCool

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