Hundreds in U.S. march beneath ‘Ban Off 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 Court may soon overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide a half century ago.

The protests kicked off what organizers predict might be a "summer season of rage" ignited by the May 2 disclosure of a draft opinion exhibiting the courtroom's conservative majority able to reverse the 1973 ruling that established a woman's constitutional proper to terminate her pregnancy.

The court docket's remaining ruling, which might return the ability to ban abortion to state legislatures, is anticipated in June. About half of the 50 states are poised to ban or severely restrict abortion nearly instantly ought to Roe be struck down. learn more

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"If you cannot choose whether or not you need to have a child, if that's not a fundamental right, then I don't know what is," mentioned Brita Van Rossum, 62, a panorama designer who traveled from suburban Philadelphia to hitch the abortion-rights rally in the nation's capital, her first ever.

Protesters marching under the slogan "Bans Off 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 help for his or her occasion and blunt projected Republican good points within the November elections. read extra

The day's largest demonstration unfolded in Washington, the place a crowd that organizers estimated at 20,000 people massed at the Washington Monument and braved a lightweight drizzle to march alongside the Nationwide Mall past the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Court docket 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 some dozen counter-demonstrators holding signs that learn: "End abortion violence" and "Girls's rights start within the womb."

The encounter between the two sides grew tense at times. Abortion rights protesters shouted, “Go residence!,” and one man whacked a counter-demonstrator in the head with his poster after profanities have been exchanged. Because 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 peaceful, though at least 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 City as 1000's 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 illustration following the leaked Supreme Court docket opinion suggesting the potential of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights resolution, in Washington, U.S., Could 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Law enforcement officials arrived to maintain house between the 2 groups as they traded taunts and vulgarities. The gang 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 Court docket 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 suitable to a legal abortion may put lives in danger as girls search unsafe alternatives.

Movie star women's rights attorney Gloria Allred instructed the gang 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 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 amongst several thousand abortion rights supporters who gathered at a park in Chicago.

Casten, whose district contains Chicago's western suburbs, advised Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Court's conservative majority would think about taking away the correct to an abortion and "condemn women to this lesser standing."

At an abortion rights protest in Atlanta, more than 400 individuals 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, "Cease 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 extra highly effective," Marshall stated.

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

Voters will be weighing a host of priorities reminiscent of inflation and may be skeptical of Democrats' skill to protect abortion entry after legislation that might enshrine abortion rights in federal regulation failed. read more

Lots of those marching on Saturday expressed fear that rolling again abortion rights would result in an erosion of civil liberties typically.

"That is simply an affront to the whole lot I consider that we're imagined to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, stated. "If a girl has no management over what's going to occur to her own physique, then we're again 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 Rich 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.