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

WASHINGTON, Might 14 (Reuters) - Thousands of abortion rights supporters rallied across america on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Courtroom could quickly overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion nationwide a half century ago.

The protests kicked off what organizers predict can be a "summer time of rage" ignited by the Might 2 disclosure of a draft opinion exhibiting the court's conservative majority able to reverse the 1973 ruling that established a lady's constitutional proper to terminate her pregnancy.

The courtroom's last ruling, which could return the power to ban abortion to state legislatures, is predicted in June. About half of the 50 states are poised to ban or severely prohibit abortion virtually immediately should Roe be struck down. read extra

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

Protesters marching below 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 galvanize support for their party and blunt projected Republican good points within the November elections. learn more

The day's largest demonstration unfolded in Washington, the place a crowd that organizers estimated at 20,000 people massed on the Washington Monument and braved a light drizzle to march along the Nationwide Mall past the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Courtroom itself.

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

Surrounded by police was a group of some dozen counter-demonstrators holding indicators that read: "End abortion violence" and "Girls's rights start within 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 together with his poster after profanities have been exchanged. Because the-anti abortion protesters left, they waved at the crowd, and a few referred to as out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

The rally appeared to stay otherwise peaceful, although no less than 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 thousands 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 participate in an indication following the leaked Supreme Courtroom opinion suggesting the potential for overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights determination, in Washington, U.S., Might 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Law enforcement officials arrived to take care of space between the 2 teams as they traded taunts and vulgarities. The crowd 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, mentioned that the leaked Supreme Courtroom draft opinion "treats girls as objects, as less than full human beings."

Malcolm DeCesare, a 34-year-old important care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally under sunny skies, said abolishing the appropriate to a legal abortion might put lives at risk as women search unsafe options.

Celeb girls's rights attorney Gloria Allred instructed the group about her own "back alley abortion" as a young lady when she grew to become pregnant from a rape at gunpoint earlier than Roe. "I almost 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, had been amongst several thousand abortion rights supporters who gathered at a park in Chicago.

Casten, whose district consists of Chicago's western suburbs, told Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Court docket's conservative majority would take into account taking away the proper to an abortion and "condemn girls to this lesser standing."

At an abortion rights protest in Atlanta, greater than 400 folks had assembled in a small park in entrance of the state capitol, whereas about a dozen counter-protesters stood on a close-by sidewalk.

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

"Jesus had just a small group, but his message was more powerful," Marshall mentioned.

Whereas 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 can be weighing a host of priorities corresponding to inflation and may be skeptical of Democrats' means to guard abortion entry after laws that may enshrine abortion rights in federal regulation failed. learn extra

A lot of those marching on Saturday expressed fear that rolling again abortion rights would lead to an erosion of civil liberties typically.

"This is simply an affront to the whole lot I believe that we're purported to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, mentioned. "If a girl has no control over what's going to happen 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; Enhancing by Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Osterman, Mark Porter and Grant McCool

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Rules.