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

WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) - 1000's of abortion rights supporters rallied across the USA on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Court docket could quickly overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide a half century ago.

The protests kicked off what organizers predict will probably be a "summer season of rage" ignited by the Could 2 disclosure of a draft opinion showing the court's conservative majority able to reverse the 1973 ruling that established a lady's constitutional right to terminate her pregnancy.

The court's ultimate ruling, which might 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 almost immediately ought to Roe be struck down. learn more

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

Protesters marching under the slogan "Bans Off Our 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 his or her celebration and blunt projected Republican positive factors in the November elections. learn more

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

The rally erupted in shouts of "Shame" 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 learn: "Finish abortion violence" and "Girls's rights start in the womb."

The encounter between the two sides grew tense at times. Abortion rights protesters shouted, “Go home!,” and one man whacked a counter-demonstrator in the head with his poster after profanities were exchanged. As 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 in any other case peaceable, although at the very least 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 Metropolis as 1000's 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 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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Law enforcement officials arrived to maintain area between the 2 groups 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, said that the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion "treats girls as objects, as lower 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 proper to a authorized abortion may put lives in danger as ladies seek unsafe options.

Movie star girls's rights attorney Gloria Allred advised the group about her personal "back alley abortion" as a younger girl when she became pregnant from a rape at gunpoint before Roe. "I nearly died," she recounted. "I used to be left in a bath in a pool of my very own blood, hemorrhaging."

U.S. Representative Sean Casten and his 15-year-old daughter, Audrey, have been amongst several thousand abortion rights supporters who gathered at a park in Chicago.

Casten, whose district includes Chicago's western suburbs, told Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Court's conservative majority would contemplate taking away the right to an abortion and "condemn women to this lesser standing."

At an abortion rights protest in Atlanta, greater 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 a sign that learn, "Cease Child Sacrifice," 23-year-old Bria Marshall, a recent 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 said.

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

Voters will likely be weighing a number of priorities similar to inflation and may be skeptical of Democrats' potential to guard abortion entry after laws that would enshrine abortion rights in federal regulation failed. learn extra

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

"This is just an affront to the whole lot I consider that we're supposed to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, mentioned. "If a girl has no management over what will occur to her own physique, then we're again 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 Rich McKay in Atlanta; Writing by Ted Hesson and Steve Gorman; Enhancing by Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Osterman, Mark Porter and Grant McCool

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