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

WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) - 1000's of abortion rights supporters rallied across the US on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Court could quickly overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion nationwide a half century in the past.

The protests kicked off what organizers predict might be a "summer of rage" ignited by the May 2 disclosure of a draft opinion showing the courtroom's conservative majority ready to reverse the 1973 ruling that established a girl's constitutional right to terminate her being pregnant.

The court docket's remaining ruling, which may return the ability to ban abortion to state legislatures, is predicted in June. About half of the 50 states are poised to ban or severely prohibit abortion almost instantly should Roe be struck down. read extra

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"If you can't select whether you need to have a child, if that's not a basic proper, then I do not know what's," mentioned Brita Van Rossum, 62, a landscape designer who traveled from suburban Philadelphia to hitch the abortion-rights rally within the nation's capital, her first ever.

Protesters marching beneath the slogan "Bans Off Our Bodies" took to the streets from New York and Atlanta to Chicago and Los Angeles in a present of shock that Democrats hope will help provoke support for their celebration and blunt projected Republican features within the November elections. learn more

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 previous the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Courtroom itself.

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

Surrounded by police was a gaggle of some dozen counter-demonstrators holding indicators that read: "End abortion violence" and "Ladies's rights begin in the womb."

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

The rally appeared to remain in any other case peaceful, 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 typically 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 potential for overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision, in Washington, U.S., Could 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Police officers arrived to take care of space between the 2 groups as they traded taunts and vulgarities. The group thinned out in early afternoon as rain fell over the city.

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 less than full human beings."

Malcolm DeCesare, a 34-year-old crucial care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally beneath sunny skies, said abolishing the suitable to a authorized abortion may put lives in danger as women seek unsafe options.

Celeb girls's rights legal professional Gloria Allred told the crowd about her own "again alley abortion" as a younger woman when she turned pregnant from a rape at gunpoint before Roe. "I virtually died," she recounted. "I used to be left in a bath in a pool of my own blood, hemorrhaging."

U.S. Representative 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 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 standing."

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

Holding a sign that read, "Cease Youngster Sacrifice," 23-year-old Bria Marshall, a current public health graduate from Kennesaw State University, acknowledged her group's smaller turnout.

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

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

Voters will be weighing a number of priorities such as inflation and could also be skeptical of Democrats' skill to protect abortion access after laws that may enshrine abortion rights in federal law failed. read more

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

"This is simply an affront to the whole lot I imagine that we're imagined to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, mentioned. "If a lady has no management over what will occur 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 Wealthy 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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