Thousands of pro-abortion activists demonstrated throughout the country on Saturday, incensed by the possibility that the Supreme Court could soon overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which legalised abortion nationwide half a century ago.
The demonstrations started off what organisers believe will be a ‘summer of rage,’ sparked by the May 2 release of a draught judgement showing the court’s conservative majority poised to overturn a 1973 case that established a woman’s constitutional right to terminate her pregnancy.
The court’s ultimate decision, which might give state legislatures the right to ban abortion, is likely in June. If Roe is overturned, over half of the 50 states are set to ban or severely restrict abortion almost immediately.
‘I don’t see what is a fundamental right if you can’t choose whether or not you want to have a baby,’ said Brita Van Rossum, 62, a landscape designer who travelled from suburban Philadelphia to attend her first abortion-rights rally in the nation’s capital.
Protesters marched from New York to Atlanta to Chicago and Los Angeles under the banner ‘Bans Off Our Bodies’ in a show of fury that Democrats hope will help rally support for their party and limit expected Republican gains in November elections.
The greatest rally of the day took place in Washington, where organisers estimated that 20,000 people gathered at the Washington Monument and marched up the National Mall past the US Capitol to the Supreme Court.
As the demonstrators approached the courthouse’s marbled columns, screams of ‘Shame’ and ‘Bans off our bodies’ erupted.
A small handful of counter-demonstrators, surrounded by police, held signs reading ‘End abortion violence’ and ‘Women’s rights begin in the womb.’
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