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

WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) - 1000's of abortion rights supporters rallied across the US on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Court might soon overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion nationwide a half century in the past.

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

The court's remaining ruling, which could return the facility 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 instantly ought to Roe be struck down. learn more

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"If you can't choose whether or not you wish to have a baby, if that is not a fundamental proper, then I do not know what's," said 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 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 assist galvanize support for their get together and blunt projected Republican good points 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 at the Washington Monument and braved a lightweight drizzle to march alongside the Nationwide Mall previous the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Court 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 signs that learn: "End abortion violence" and "Ladies's rights start in the womb."

The encounter between the 2 sides grew tense at occasions. 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 on the crowd, and some referred to as out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

The rally appeared to remain otherwise peaceful, although at the least one counter-protester was seen being escorted away by a safety guard in Washington earlier in the day.

The mood was likewise energetic, and generally 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 take part in a demonstration following the leaked Supreme Court docket opinion suggesting the potential of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights choice, in Washington, U.S., May 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Cops arrived to take care of house between the 2 teams 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, 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 critical care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally below sunny skies, mentioned abolishing the proper to a authorized abortion might put lives in danger as women search unsafe options.

Celeb women's rights lawyer Gloria Allred advised the crowd about her personal "back alley abortion" as a young girl when she became pregnant from a rape at gunpoint before Roe. "I virtually died," she recounted. "I used to be left in a bathtub in a pool of my own blood, hemorrhaging."

U.S. Consultant 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 consists of Chicago's western suburbs, told Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Courtroom's conservative majority would take into account taking away the appropriate to an abortion and "condemn girls to this lesser standing."

At an abortion rights protest in Atlanta, more than 400 people had assembled in a small park in front of the state capitol, whereas a few dozen counter-protesters stood on a nearby sidewalk.

Holding a sign that learn, "Stop Little one Sacrifice," 23-year-old Bria Marshall, a latest public well being graduate from Kennesaw State College, acknowledged her group's smaller turnout.

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

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

Voters will probably be weighing a number of priorities such as inflation and could also be skeptical of Democrats' capability to guard abortion entry after laws that will enshrine abortion rights in federal law failed. read extra

A lot of these marching on Saturday expressed concern that rolling again abortion rights would result in an erosion of civil liberties usually.

"That is just an affront to every thing I believe that we're purported to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, said. "If a woman has no management over what's going to occur to her personal 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 Rich McKay in Atlanta; Writing by Ted Hesson and Steve Gorman; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Osterman, Mark Porter and Grant McCool

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