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

WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) - Hundreds of abortion rights supporters rallied across the United States on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Courtroom could quickly overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade determination 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 displaying the courtroom's conservative majority able to reverse the 1973 ruling that established a girl's constitutional proper to terminate her pregnancy.

The court's last ruling, which might 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 virtually instantly should Roe be struck down. read more

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"If you cannot select whether or not you want to have a baby, if that's not a basic right, 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 underneath the slogan "Bans Off 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 impress help for their get together and blunt projected Republican gains within the November elections. learn 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 light-weight drizzle to march alongside the National Mall past the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Court docket 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 learn: "End abortion violence" and "Ladies's rights begin within the womb."

The encounter between the 2 sides grew tense at instances. Abortion rights protesters shouted, “Go home!,” and one man whacked a counter-demonstrator in the head with his poster after profanities had been exchanged. As the-anti abortion protesters left, they waved at the crowd, and some known as out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

The rally appeared to remain in any other case peaceable, although not less than one counter-protester was seen being escorted away by a security guard in Washington earlier within the day.

The mood was likewise energetic, and generally contentious, in New York Metropolis 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 take part in a demonstration following the leaked Supreme Court opinion suggesting the possibility of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights determination, in Washington, U.S., May 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Cops arrived to maintain space between the two teams as they traded taunts and vulgarities. The crowd thinned out in early afternoon as rain fell over the town.

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 lower than full human beings."

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

Superstar girls's rights attorney Gloria Allred informed the group about her personal "again alley abortion" as a younger lady when she grew to become pregnant from a rape at gunpoint earlier than Roe. "I almost died," she recounted. "I was left in a bath in a pool of my own blood, hemorrhaging."

U.S. Consultant 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 includes Chicago's western suburbs, instructed Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Court's conservative majority would consider taking away the correct to an abortion and "condemn women to this lesser status."

At an abortion rights protest in Atlanta, greater than 400 folks had assembled in a small park in front of the state capitol, whereas a few dozen counter-protesters stood on a close-by sidewalk.

Holding an indication that read, "Stop Baby 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 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 problem will play out within the coming elections.

Voters will probably be weighing a host of priorities similar to inflation and could also be skeptical of Democrats' potential to protect abortion entry after laws that may enshrine abortion rights in federal law failed. learn extra

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

"This is simply an affront to all the pieces I believe that we're supposed to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, mentioned. "If a girl has no management over what is going to occur to her own 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 Rich McKay in Atlanta; Writing by Ted Hesson and Steve Gorman; Modifying by Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Osterman, Mark Porter and Grant McCool

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.