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Thousands marched in cities across the U.S. on Saturday to protest the Supreme Court’s overturning of federal abortion rights and to urge voters to join the Democratic “blue wave” in next month’s key midterm elections.
In Washington, a mostly female crowd chanted “We’re not going back” as they marched.
They held up posters calling for a “feminist tsunami” and urging people to “vote to save women’s rights”.
“I don’t want to go back to another era,” 18-year-old student Emily Bobal told AFP.
“It’s kind of absurd that we still have to do this in 2022,” she said, adding she was concerned that same-sex marriage could be the next target of the conservative-dominated high court.
Kimberly Allen, 70, said: “Most of us are ready to go out and fight for democracy, for people’s bodily autonomy, men and women alike.”
The midterm elections could be decisive for the future of those rights as Democrats struggle to maintain narrow control of Congress, she said.
Several marchers wore green armbands or scarves symbolizing abortion rights.
Others wore blue — the color of the Democratic Party — and carried huge flags and banners calling on a symbolic “blue wave” of voters to go to the polls on Nov. 8.
A number of counter-protesters made their presence public, with some urging the crowd to “find Jesus Christ” while others shouted “abortion is murder”. They were booed.
Similar rallies were held in cities such as New York and Denver, Colorado.
“The #WomensWave is coming for every anti-abortion politician, no matter where they live,” Rachel O’Leary Carmona, executive director of the nonprofit Women’s March, tweeted Special said.
She urged people to elect “more women” as well as male candidates who support abortion rights.
Polls show Democrats have a slim chance of maintaining control of the House of Representatives, but they have a better chance in a tie Senate, where Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris won a runoff vote.
While Republicans have been campaigning primarily on soaring prices, immigration and urban crime, Democrats, led by President Joe Biden, want to shift the debate toward abortion rights and defending American democracy.
The Supreme Court ended decades-long federal protections for abortion rights in June, leaving states to make their own rules.
Since then, several Republican-led states have banned or severely restricted the use of the program, prompting a series of legal challenges.
In the latest development, an appeals court in the southwestern U.S. state of Arizona on Friday blocked — at least for now — a near-total ban on abortion.
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