Thousands in U.S. march beneath ‘Ban Off Our Our bodies’ banner for abortion rights

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

The protests kicked off what organizers predict might be a "summer of rage" ignited by the May 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 courtroom's closing ruling, which could return the facility to ban abortion to state legislatures, is expected in June. About half of the 50 states are poised to ban or severely limit abortion nearly immediately should Roe be struck down. read more

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"If you can't select whether or not you want to have a child, if that's not a fundamental right, then I don't know what is," said Brita Van Rossum, 62, a panorama designer who traveled from suburban Philadelphia to join the abortion-rights rally within the nation's capital, her first ever.

Protesters marching beneath 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 assist impress assist for their party and blunt projected Republican features within 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 light-weight drizzle to march along the Nationwide Mall past the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Court docket 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 group of some dozen counter-demonstrators holding signs that read: "Finish abortion violence" and "Girls's rights begin within the womb."

The encounter between the 2 sides grew tense at occasions. Abortion rights protesters shouted, “Go home!,” and one man whacked a counter-demonstrator in the head together with his poster after profanities were 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 peaceable, though at the least one counter-protester was seen being escorted away by a safety guard in Washington earlier in the day.

The temper was likewise energetic, and sometimes contentious, in New York Metropolis as thousands of abortion rights supporters crossed the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan, where they have been confronted by a half dozen anti-abortion activists.

Abortion rights campaigners take part in an illustration following the leaked Supreme Court docket opinion suggesting the possibility of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights choice, in Washington, U.S., Might 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Cops arrived to take care of area between the 2 teams as they traded taunts and vulgarities. The crowd 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, 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 below sunny skies, said abolishing the proper to a legal abortion could put lives at risk as women search unsafe alternatives.

Celebrity girls's rights legal professional Gloria Allred advised the crowd about her own "again alley abortion" as a young girl when she turned pregnant from a rape at gunpoint before Roe. "I virtually died," she recounted. "I used to be left in a bath in a pool of my very 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, told Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Courtroom's conservative majority would think about taking away the proper 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 about a dozen counter-protesters stood on a close-by sidewalk.

Holding a sign that learn, "Stop Child Sacrifice," 23-year-old Bria Marshall, a current public health graduate from Kennesaw State University, acknowledged her group's smaller turnout.

"Jesus had only a small group, but his message was extra powerful," Marshall mentioned.

Whereas the Supreme Court 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 will likely be weighing a bunch of priorities corresponding to inflation and could also be skeptical of Democrats' potential to guard abortion access after laws that might enshrine abortion rights in federal legislation failed. read extra

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

"That is simply an affront to all the pieces I believe that we're imagined to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, said. "If a girl 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 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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