US abortion rights activists start ‘summer of rage’ with protests across the country

Abortion rights supporters began gathering for protests across the United States on Saturday, starting what organisers said would be “a summer of rage” if the US Supreme Court overturns the Roe v Wade case that legalised abortion nationwide.

Planned Parenthood, Women’s March and other abortion rights groups organised more than 400 “Bans Off Our Bodies” marches for Saturday, with the largest turnouts expected in New York City, Washington, Los Angeles and Chicago.

The demonstrations are in response to the May 2 leak of a draft opinion showing the court’s conservative majority readiness to reverse the 1973 landmark decision that established a federal constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy.

The court’s final ruling, which could give states the power to ban abortion, is expected in June. About half of US states could ban or severely restrict abortion soon after a ruling vacating Roe.

Organisers said they anticipated hundreds of thousands of people to participate in Saturday’s events, which they said would be the first of many coordinated protests around the Supreme Court’s decision.

“For the women of this country, this will be a summer of rage,” said Rachel Carmona, president of Women’s March. “We will be ungovernable until this government starts working for us, until the attacks on our bodies let up, until the right to an abortion is codified into law.”

Several thousand abortion backers began amassing in a Chicago park on Saturday morning, including US Representative Sean Casten and his 15-year-old daughter, Audrey.

Casten, whose district includes Chicago’s western suburbs, told Reuters it was a “horrible” that the conservative Supreme Court would consider taking away the right to an abortion and “condemn women to this lesser status.”