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

WASHINGTON, Could 14 (Reuters) - Thousands of abortion rights supporters rallied throughout america on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Court docket may soon overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion nationwide a half century in the past.

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

The court's final 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 limit abortion nearly instantly should Roe be struck down. read extra

Register

"If you cannot select whether or not you wish to have a baby, if that's not a elementary 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 in the nation's capital, her first ever.

Protesters marching beneath the slogan "Bans Off Our 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 support for their occasion and blunt projected Republican beneficial properties in the November elections. learn more

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

The rally erupted in shouts of "Disgrace" and "Bans off our bodies" because the marchers neared the marbled columns of the courthouse.

Surrounded by police was a gaggle of a few dozen counter-demonstrators holding indicators that read: "Finish abortion violence" and "Girls's rights begin 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 in the head with his poster after profanities had been exchanged. As the-anti abortion protesters left, they waved at the crowd, and some 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 within the day.

The mood was likewise energetic, and sometimes contentious, in New York City as 1000's of abortion rights supporters crossed the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan, the place they had 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 potential of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights choice, in Washington, U.S., May 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

Learn More

Cops arrived to take care of area between the 2 groups as they traded taunts and vulgarities. The crowd thinned out in early afternoon as rain fell over town.

Elizabeth Holtzman, an 80-year-old former congresswoman who represented New York from 1973 to 1981, mentioned 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, said abolishing the fitting to a legal abortion could put lives at risk as ladies seek unsafe alternate options.

Superstar women's rights attorney Gloria Allred informed the crowd about her own "again alley abortion" as a younger lady when she turned pregnant from a rape at gunpoint earlier than Roe. "I virtually died," she recounted. "I used to be left in a bath in a pool of my own blood, hemorrhaging."

U.S. Consultant Sean Casten and his 15-year-old daughter, Audrey, were among 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 docket's conservative majority would consider taking away the best to an abortion and "condemn girls 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, whereas about a dozen counter-protesters stood on a close-by sidewalk.

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

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

Whereas the Supreme Court 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 will probably be weighing a host of priorities similar to 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 more

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

"This is simply an affront to every little thing I consider that we're supposed to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, stated. "If a woman has no management over what is going to happen to her own body, then we're back in 1850 not 1950.

Register

Reporting by Gabriella Borter in Washington; Additional 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 Ideas.