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

WASHINGTON, Might 14 (Reuters) - 1000's of abortion rights supporters rallied throughout america 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 might 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's closing 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 is not a fundamental right, then I do not know what's," stated 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 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 assist impress assist for their get together and blunt projected Republican gains in the November elections. learn more

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 lightweight 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 gaggle of a few dozen counter-demonstrators holding signs that learn: "End abortion violence" and "Ladies's rights begin in the womb."

The encounter between the two sides grew tense at instances. Abortion rights protesters shouted, “Go dwelling!,” and one man whacked a counter-demonstrator within the head along with his poster after profanities had been exchanged. As the-anti abortion protesters left, they waved on the crowd, and a few 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 sometimes contentious, in New York City 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 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 keep up house between the two groups as they traded taunts and vulgarities. The gang 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, mentioned that the leaked Supreme Court docket draft opinion "treats girls as objects, as lower than full human beings."

Malcolm DeCesare, a 34-year-old vital care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally underneath sunny skies, stated abolishing the suitable to a legal abortion may put lives at risk as women seek unsafe alternatives.

Movie star ladies's rights lawyer Gloria Allred informed the crowd about her personal "again alley abortion" as a young girl when she grew to become pregnant from a rape at gunpoint earlier than Roe. "I nearly died," she recounted. "I was left in a tub in a pool of my very own blood, hemorrhaging."

U.S. Representative Sean Casten and his 15-year-old daughter, Audrey, were 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 Courtroom's conservative majority would take into account taking away the precise to an abortion and "condemn girls to this lesser status."

At an abortion rights protest in Atlanta, greater than 400 individuals had assembled in a small park in entrance of the state capitol, while about a dozen counter-protesters stood on a close-by 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, but his message was extra powerful," Marshall mentioned.

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

Voters will likely be weighing a number of priorities similar to inflation and may be skeptical of Democrats' capacity to guard abortion entry after legislation that will enshrine abortion rights in federal regulation failed. read more

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

"That is just an affront to every little thing I imagine that we're purported to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, mentioned. "If a lady has no control over what's going to occur to her own physique, 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 Wealthy McKay in Atlanta; Writing by Ted Hesson and Steve Gorman; Enhancing by Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Osterman, Mark Porter and Grant McCool

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Belief Ideas.