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

WASHINGTON, Could 14 (Reuters) - Thousands of abortion rights supporters rallied across the USA on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Courtroom might 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 can be a "summer time of rage" ignited by the Could 2 disclosure of a draft opinion exhibiting the court docket'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 last ruling, which might 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 nearly immediately ought to Roe be struck down. learn more

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"If you cannot choose whether you wish to have a baby, if that's not a elementary proper, then I do not know what's," said Brita Van Rossum, 62, a landscape designer who traveled from suburban Philadelphia to join the abortion-rights rally in the nation's capital, her first ever.

Protesters marching beneath 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 shock that Democrats hope will help impress support for their party 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 individuals massed on the Washington Monument and braved a light-weight drizzle to march alongside the National Mall past the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Courtroom itself.

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

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

The encounter between the two sides grew tense at instances. Abortion rights protesters shouted, “Go house!,” 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 at the crowd, and some known as out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

The rally appeared to remain otherwise peaceable, though at the very 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 had been confronted by a half dozen anti-abortion activists.

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

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Police officers arrived to keep up house between the 2 groups as they traded taunts and vulgarities. The group 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 ladies as objects, as lower than full human beings."

Malcolm DeCesare, a 34-year-old essential care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally under sunny skies, stated abolishing the proper to a authorized abortion may put lives in danger as ladies search unsafe options.

Celebrity ladies's rights lawyer Gloria Allred advised the group about her own "again alley abortion" as a young lady when she grew to become 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 very 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, informed Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Court docket's conservative majority would think about 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, whereas a few dozen counter-protesters stood on a nearby sidewalk.

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

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

While the Supreme Court 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 can be weighing a host of priorities reminiscent of inflation and could also be skeptical of Democrats' ability to protect abortion access after laws that will enshrine abortion rights in federal regulation failed. learn extra

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

"This is just an affront to all the pieces I believe that we're speculated to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, stated. "If a woman 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; 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; Modifying by Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Osterman, Mark Porter and Grant McCool

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