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

WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) - Hundreds of abortion rights supporters rallied throughout america on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Court docket 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 time of rage" ignited by the Could 2 disclosure of a draft opinion showing the court docket's conservative majority able to reverse the 1973 ruling that established a girl's constitutional right to terminate her being pregnant.

The courtroom's final ruling, which could 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 almost immediately should Roe be struck down. read extra

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"If you cannot select whether you need to have a child, if that's not a elementary 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 under 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 outrage that Democrats hope will assist galvanize help for their social gathering 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 Nationwide Mall previous the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Courtroom 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 gaggle of a few dozen counter-demonstrators holding indicators that learn: "Finish abortion violence" and "Girls's rights begin in the womb."

The encounter between the two sides grew tense at times. Abortion rights protesters shouted, “Go residence!,” and one man whacked a counter-demonstrator within the head along with his poster after profanities were 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 stay in any other case peaceable, although at the very least one counter-protester was seen being escorted away by a security guard in Washington earlier within the day.

The temper was likewise energetic, and generally contentious, in New York Metropolis as thousands 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 participate in an indication following the leaked Supreme Courtroom opinion suggesting the potential for overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights resolution, in Washington, U.S., May 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Law enforcement officials arrived to take care of space between the 2 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, stated that the leaked Supreme Courtroom draft opinion "treats girls as objects, as lower than full human beings."

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

Celebrity ladies's rights lawyer Gloria Allred advised the crowd about her personal "back alley abortion" as a young woman when she turned pregnant from a rape at gunpoint earlier than Roe. "I nearly died," she recounted. "I was left in a bathtub in a pool of my own blood, hemorrhaging."

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

Casten, whose district consists of Chicago's western suburbs, instructed Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Courtroom's conservative majority would think about taking away the fitting to an abortion and "condemn girls to this lesser status."

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

Holding a sign that learn, "Cease Baby Sacrifice," 23-year-old Bria Marshall, a latest public well being graduate from Kennesaw State College, acknowledged her group's smaller turnout.

"Jesus had only a small group, however his message was extra highly effective," Marshall stated.

Whereas the Supreme Court 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 be weighing a bunch of priorities corresponding to inflation and may be skeptical of Democrats' ability to protect abortion entry after laws that might enshrine abortion rights in federal legislation failed. read more

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

"This is just an affront to all the pieces I believe that we're alleged to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, said. "If a girl has no control over what's going to happen to her personal physique, then we're back 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; Enhancing by Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Osterman, Mark Porter and Grant McCool

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Rules.