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

WASHINGTON, Could 14 (Reuters) - 1000's of abortion rights supporters rallied across the United States on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Courtroom may quickly overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion nationwide a half century ago.

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

The courtroom's remaining ruling, which may return the ability to ban abortion to state legislatures, is expected in June. About half of the 50 states are poised to ban or severely prohibit abortion nearly immediately should Roe be struck down. read more

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"If you can't select whether you want to have a child, if that is 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 hitch 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 show of shock that Democrats hope will assist galvanize assist for their get together and blunt projected Republican positive aspects within the November elections. learn more

The day's largest demonstration unfolded in Washington, where a crowd that organizers estimated at 20,000 people massed at the Washington Monument and braved a lightweight drizzle to march alongside the National Mall past the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Courtroom 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 a few dozen counter-demonstrators holding indicators that read: "Finish abortion violence" and "Girls's rights start in the womb."

The encounter between the 2 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 have been exchanged. Because the-anti abortion protesters left, they waved on the crowd, and a few called out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

The rally appeared to stay in any other case peaceable, although at least one counter-protester was seen being escorted away by a security guard in Washington earlier in the day.

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

Abortion rights campaigners participate in an illustration following the leaked Supreme Court opinion suggesting the possibility of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision, in Washington, U.S., Could 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Police officers arrived to maintain space between the two groups 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, stated that the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion "treats women 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 suitable to a legal abortion could put lives at risk as girls search unsafe alternate options.

Celebrity ladies's rights lawyer Gloria Allred told the gang about her own "again alley abortion" as a young lady when she grew to become pregnant from a rape at gunpoint before Roe. "I virtually died," she recounted. "I was left in a bathtub in a pool of my own blood, hemorrhaging."

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

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

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

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

"Jesus had only a small group, but his message was more highly effective," Marshall said.

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

Voters might be weighing a host of priorities equivalent to inflation and may be skeptical of Democrats' potential to protect abortion entry after legislation that would enshrine abortion rights in federal legislation failed. learn more

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

"This is just an affront to all the pieces I imagine that we're purported to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, stated. "If a lady has no control over what is 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; Extra 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 Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Trust Rules.