1000’s in U.S. march underneath ‘Ban Off Our Bodies’ banner for abortion rights

WASHINGTON, Might 14 (Reuters) - Hundreds of abortion rights supporters rallied throughout the United States on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Courtroom might quickly overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion nationwide a half century in the past.

The protests kicked off what organizers predict will probably 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 lady's constitutional proper to terminate her being pregnant.

The court docket's closing ruling, which could return the ability 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 instantly should Roe be struck down. learn more

Register

"If you can't choose whether or not you want to have a child, if that is not a basic proper, then I don't know what's," stated Brita Van Rossum, 62, a landscape 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 Bodies" took to the streets from New York and Atlanta to Chicago and Los Angeles in a present of outrage that Democrats hope will help galvanize assist for their party and blunt projected Republican good points within the November elections. learn extra

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 light drizzle to march along the Nationwide Mall previous the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Courtroom 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 signs that learn: "Finish abortion violence" and "Women's rights start within the womb."

The encounter between the 2 sides grew tense at times. Abortion rights protesters shouted, “Go residence!,” and one man whacked a counter-demonstrator in the head along with his poster after profanities were exchanged. As the-anti abortion protesters left, they waved on the crowd, and a few called out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

The rally appeared to remain otherwise peaceable, though 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 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 take part in an indication following the leaked Supreme Court docket opinion suggesting the possibility of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision, in Washington, U.S., May 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

Read Extra

Law enforcement officials arrived to maintain house between the 2 groups as they traded taunts and vulgarities. The crowd 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, mentioned that the leaked Supreme Courtroom draft opinion "treats girls as objects, as lower than full human beings."

Malcolm DeCesare, a 34-year-old vital care nurse who attended a Los Angeles rally underneath sunny skies, stated abolishing the correct to a legal abortion could put lives at risk as ladies search unsafe alternatives.

Superstar women's rights legal professional Gloria Allred instructed the crowd about her own "back alley abortion" as a young lady when she became pregnant from a rape at gunpoint earlier than Roe. "I virtually died," she recounted. "I was left in a bath in a pool of my own blood, hemorrhaging."

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

Casten, whose district contains Chicago's western suburbs, told Reuters it was "horrible" that the Supreme Courtroom's conservative majority would consider taking away the appropriate 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, whereas a couple of dozen counter-protesters stood on a nearby sidewalk.

Holding an indication that read, "Cease Child Sacrifice," 23-year-old Bria Marshall, a latest public health graduate from Kennesaw State College, acknowledged her group's smaller turnout.

"Jesus had only a small group, but his message was more powerful," Marshall stated.

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 probably be weighing a bunch of priorities resembling inflation and could also be skeptical of Democrats' capacity to guard abortion access after laws that may enshrine abortion rights in federal legislation failed. learn more

A lot 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 speculated to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, mentioned. "If a woman has no control over what is going to happen to her own body, then we're again 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; Modifying by Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Osterman, Mark Porter and Grant McCool

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.