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

WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) - Thousands of abortion rights supporters rallied throughout the United States on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Court might soon overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution 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 able to reverse the 1973 ruling that established a lady's constitutional right to terminate her pregnancy.

The court's ultimate 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 prohibit abortion nearly immediately should Roe be struck down. learn extra

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"If you cannot select whether you wish to have a child, if that is not a fundamental proper, then I don't 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 under the slogan "Bans Off Our Bodies" took to the streets from New York and Atlanta to Chicago and Los Angeles in a show of shock that Democrats hope will help galvanize assist for his or her party and blunt projected Republican beneficial properties within the November elections. learn extra

The day's largest demonstration unfolded in Washington, the place a crowd that organizers estimated at 20,000 folks massed at the Washington Monument and braved a lightweight drizzle to march along the Nationwide Mall past the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Courtroom itself.

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

Surrounded by police was a bunch of a few dozen counter-demonstrators holding signs that read: "End abortion violence" and "Girls's rights begin in the womb."

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

The rally appeared to stay otherwise peaceful, though at least one counter-protester was seen being escorted away by a security guard in Washington earlier in the day.

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

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Law enforcement officials arrived to take care of house between the two groups as they traded taunts and vulgarities. The gang 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, mentioned that the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion "treats girls as objects, as lower than full human beings."

Malcolm DeCesare, a 34-year-old essential care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally beneath sunny skies, mentioned abolishing the right to a legal abortion could put lives at risk as women seek unsafe alternatives.

Movie star ladies's rights attorney Gloria Allred advised the gang about her own "again alley abortion" as a younger woman when she turned pregnant from a rape at gunpoint before 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, were amongst 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 docket's conservative majority would take into account taking away the appropriate to an abortion and "condemn girls to this lesser status."

At an abortion rights protest in Atlanta, more 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 a sign that read, "Stop Youngster Sacrifice," 23-year-old Bria Marshall, a current public health graduate from Kennesaw State College, acknowledged her group's smaller turnout.

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

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

Voters will likely be weighing a bunch of priorities equivalent to inflation and could also be skeptical of Democrats' potential to protect abortion access after laws that would enshrine abortion rights in federal legislation failed. learn extra

Lots of these marching on Saturday expressed fear that rolling back abortion rights would lead to an erosion of civil liberties typically.

"This is just an affront to every little thing I imagine that we're speculated to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, mentioned. "If a girl has no control 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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