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

WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) - Hundreds of abortion rights supporters rallied throughout america on Saturday, angered by the prospect that the Supreme Court docket could quickly overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion nationwide a half century in the past.

The protests kicked off what organizers predict will likely be a "summer season of rage" ignited by the May 2 disclosure of a draft opinion displaying the court docket's conservative majority ready to reverse the 1973 ruling that established a girl's constitutional right to terminate her being pregnant.

The court's final ruling, which might return the power to ban abortion to state legislatures, is predicted in June. About half of the 50 states are poised to ban or severely restrict abortion virtually immediately should Roe be struck down. learn more

Register

"If you can't select whether or not you need to have a child, if that's not a basic right, then I do not know what is," stated 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 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 assist provoke support for his or her party and blunt projected Republican beneficial properties within the November elections. read more

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

The rally erupted in shouts of "Shame" 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 read: "End abortion violence" and "Girls's rights begin within the womb."

The encounter between the 2 sides grew tense at times. Abortion rights protesters shouted, “Go dwelling!,” and one man whacked a counter-demonstrator within the head together with his poster after profanities have been exchanged. Because the-anti abortion protesters left, they waved at the crowd, and a few known as out, “Bye, Roe v. Wade!”

The rally appeared to remain otherwise peaceful, though no less than one counter-protester was seen being escorted away by a safety 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, where they have been confronted by a half dozen anti-abortion activists.

Abortion rights campaigners participate in a demonstration following the leaked Supreme Court opinion suggesting the possibility of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights determination, in Washington, U.S., Might 14, 2022. REUTERS/Amira Karaoud

Learn Extra

Law enforcement officials arrived to maintain house between the two groups as they traded taunts and vulgarities. The group 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 Courtroom draft opinion "treats girls as objects, as lower than full human beings."

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

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

U.S. Consultant Sean Casten and his 15-year-old daughter, Audrey, had been among several 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 Court's conservative majority would think about taking away the proper to an abortion and "condemn girls to this lesser standing."

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

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

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

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

Voters will probably be weighing a bunch of priorities reminiscent of inflation and could also be skeptical of Democrats' capability to protect abortion access after legislation that would enshrine abortion rights in federal regulation failed. learn extra

Lots of these marching on Saturday expressed fear that rolling back abortion rights would result in an erosion of civil liberties usually.

"This is just an affront to everything I consider that we're presupposed to be about," Los Angeles musician Joel Altshuler, 73, mentioned. "If a woman has no control over what's going to happen to her own physique, then we're again in 1850 not 1950.

Register

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; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Osterman, Mark Porter and Grant McCool

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Belief Principles.