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

WASHINGTON, Could 14 (Reuters) - Thousands of abortion rights supporters rallied throughout 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 will likely be a "summer of rage" ignited by the Might 2 disclosure of a draft opinion displaying the court docket's conservative majority ready to reverse the 1973 ruling that established a girl's constitutional proper to terminate her being pregnant.

The court docket's closing ruling, which could return the facility to ban abortion to state legislatures, is anticipated in June. About half of the 50 states are poised to ban or severely limit abortion nearly instantly ought to Roe be struck down. learn extra

Register

"If you can't choose whether you wish to have a child, if that is not a basic proper, then I don't know what's," stated Brita Van Rossum, 62, a panorama designer who traveled from suburban Philadelphia to affix the abortion-rights rally within 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 present of shock that Democrats hope will help impress help for their social gathering and blunt projected Republican positive factors in 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 on the Washington Monument and braved a light drizzle to march along the Nationwide Mall previous the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Court docket 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 bunch 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 occasions. 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 on the crowd, and some known as out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

The rally appeared to stay in any other case peaceful, though no 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 hundreds of abortion rights supporters crossed the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan, the place they were confronted by a half dozen anti-abortion activists.

Abortion rights campaigners take part in a demonstration following the leaked Supreme Court docket opinion suggesting the possibility of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights resolution, in Washington, U.S., Might 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

Learn Extra

Cops arrived to maintain 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, said that the leaked Supreme Court 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 below sunny skies, stated abolishing the appropriate to a legal abortion might put lives in danger as women search unsafe alternatives.

Superstar women's rights attorney Gloria Allred informed the group about her own "back alley abortion" as a younger girl when she became pregnant from a rape at gunpoint earlier than Roe. "I virtually died," she recounted. "I used to be 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, were among several thousand abortion rights supporters who gathered at a park in Chicago.

Casten, whose district contains Chicago's western suburbs, informed Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Court's conservative majority would take into account taking away the correct to an abortion and "condemn ladies 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 a sign that learn, "Stop Baby Sacrifice," 23-year-old Bria Marshall, a recent public well being graduate from Kennesaw State College, acknowledged her group's smaller turnout.

"Jesus had only a small group, but his message was more powerful," Marshall said.

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

Voters might be weighing a bunch of priorities similar to inflation and could also be skeptical of Democrats' skill to guard abortion access after laws that might enshrine abortion rights in federal regulation failed. read more

Many of those 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 thing I imagine that we're speculated to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, stated. "If a lady has no control over what will occur to her personal physique, then we're back in 1850 not 1950.

Register

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

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Belief Ideas.