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

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

The protests kicked off what organizers predict shall be a "summer season 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 last ruling, which could return the facility 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 immediately should Roe be struck down. learn more

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"If you cannot choose whether or not you want to have a baby, if that's not a basic proper, then I don't know what is," stated 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 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 concern that Democrats hope will help galvanize help for his or her party and blunt projected Republican positive factors within the November elections. read extra

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

The rally erupted in shouts of "Disgrace" and "Bans off 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 signs that read: "End abortion violence" and "Ladies's rights begin in the womb."

The encounter between the two sides grew tense at instances. Abortion rights protesters shouted, “Go residence!,” and one man whacked a counter-demonstrator within the head along with his poster after profanities had been exchanged. Because the-anti abortion protesters left, they waved on the crowd, and some called out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

The rally appeared to remain otherwise peaceful, 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 typically contentious, in New York Metropolis as hundreds 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 indication following the leaked Supreme Courtroom opinion suggesting the potential for overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights resolution, in Washington, U.S., May 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

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Cops arrived to maintain space between the two 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, said that the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion "treats women as objects, as less than full human beings."

Malcolm DeCesare, a 34-year-old important care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally beneath sunny skies, stated abolishing the appropriate to a legal abortion could put lives in danger as women seek unsafe alternatives.

Celebrity ladies's rights lawyer Gloria Allred informed the group about her personal "back alley abortion" as a younger girl when she turned 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. Consultant Sean Casten and his 15-year-old daughter, Audrey, were amongst a number of 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 Courtroom's conservative majority would think about taking away the best to an abortion and "condemn ladies to this lesser status."

At an abortion rights protest in Atlanta, greater than 400 folks 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 read, "Stop Youngster Sacrifice," 23-year-old Bria Marshall, a current public health graduate from Kennesaw State University, acknowledged her group's smaller turnout.

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

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

Voters will be weighing a host of priorities similar to inflation and could also be skeptical of Democrats' capability to guard abortion entry after laws 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 result in an erosion of civil liberties generally.

"This is just an affront to all the things I believe that we're purported to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, mentioned. "If a girl has no management over what's going to occur to her personal physique, then we're back 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; Modifying by Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Osterman, Mark Porter and Grant McCool

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