Abortion rights face-off at Supreme Court

WASHINGTON: Hundreds of pro-choice and anti-abortion activists gathered in front of the US Supreme Court on Monday night, hours after a stunning leak of a draft opinion that signals the institution may be set to strike down the right to abortion.

According to the draft majority opinion obtained by news outlet Politico, the top US court is poised to overturn the historic 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that enshrined the right to abortion in the United States.

Squaring off on either side of the white marble building a stone’s throw from the Capitol, the pro-choice and anti-abortion groups railed at each other.

“Roe v Wade is going to go,” antiabortion protesters taunted, while the pro-choice crowd yelled: “My body, my choice.”

The two groups chanted and waved placards in the plaza in front of the steps to the Supreme Court, with barriers and a few uniformed police officers barring access to the colonnaded building.

Abby Korb, a 23-year-old graduate student and congressional aide, said she was “in literal shock” when the news broke and quickly headed to the Supreme Court with a friend. “I’m a woman and my rights are being taken away every single day,” she said.

Like many others at the spontaneous demonstration, Ms Korb, originally from Wisconsin, is now calling for legislation at federal level to protect access to abortion.

The growing crowd took turns to hurl expletives at Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who reportedly wrote the opinion, and called on Democratic Party leaders to “do something”.

Madeline Hren, a 25-year-old from North Carolina, said it had made her very angry.

“I called everyone I knew to be very angry,” she said, holding a small sign with a drawing of a bloody coat hanger that said “We will not go back.”

For opponents of the right to abortion, however, it was time to celebrate. “You don’t care if people die,” they sang at the pro-choice crowd.

“I hope they overturn it,” said Claire Rowan, a 55-year-old mother of seven children, some of whom accompanied her to the demonstration.

Ms Rowan said she hopes people will now be “asking God for forgiveness so that the nation can heal.”

BLOOMBERG Pro-choice demonstrators protest outside the US Supreme Court early yesterday, following a report that conservatives on the US Supreme Court were poised to strike down the half-century-old ‘Roe v Wade’ precedent.