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

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

The protests kicked off what organizers predict shall be a "summer season of rage" ignited by the Could 2 disclosure of a draft opinion showing the court docket's conservative majority able to reverse the 1973 ruling that established a woman's constitutional proper to terminate her being pregnant.

The court docket's remaining ruling, which could 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 limit abortion virtually immediately should Roe be struck down. learn more

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"If you cannot select whether you want to have a baby, if that is not a basic proper, then I do not know what is," mentioned 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 underneath 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 impress help for their social gathering and blunt projected Republican beneficial properties in the November elections. learn more

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 drizzle to march along the National Mall past the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Court itself.

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

Surrounded by police was a group of some dozen counter-demonstrators holding signs that read: "Finish abortion violence" and "Ladies's rights start within the womb."

The encounter between the 2 sides grew tense at instances. Abortion rights protesters shouted, “Go house!,” and one man whacked a counter-demonstrator within the head with his poster after profanities were 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 remain otherwise peaceable, though not less than one counter-protester was seen being escorted away by a safety guard in Washington earlier within the day.

The mood was likewise energetic, and typically contentious, in New York City 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 participate in an illustration following the leaked Supreme Courtroom opinion suggesting the opportunity of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision, in Washington, U.S., Might 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Law enforcement officials arrived to keep up area between the two teams 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, mentioned that the leaked Supreme Court docket draft opinion "treats ladies as objects, as less 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 authorized abortion may put lives in danger as ladies seek unsafe alternate options.

Superstar ladies's rights lawyer Gloria Allred told the crowd about her personal "again alley abortion" as a young girl when she turned pregnant from a rape at gunpoint before Roe. "I almost died," she recounted. "I was left in a bathtub in a pool of my own blood, hemorrhaging."

U.S. Consultant Sean Casten and his 15-year-old daughter, Audrey, had been amongst a number of thousand abortion rights supporters who gathered at a park in Chicago.

Casten, whose district consists of Chicago's western suburbs, informed Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Court docket's conservative majority would take into account taking away the fitting 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 entrance of the state capitol, while a couple of dozen counter-protesters stood on a nearby sidewalk.

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

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

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

Voters will likely be weighing a number of priorities resembling inflation and may be skeptical of Democrats' potential to protect abortion entry after laws that may enshrine abortion rights in federal law failed. read more

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

"That is just an affront to all the pieces I imagine that we're imagined to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, mentioned. "If a lady has no management over what is going to occur to her own body, then we're back in 1850 not 1950.

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Reporting by Gabriella Borter in Washington; Extra 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

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Belief Rules.