Injuries were reported on Tuesday in Los Angeles during clashes with pro-abortion protesters and rioters, according to officials.
At least one Los Angeles Police Department officer was injured, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore said Tuesday.
“We attempted to communicate, clear, and provide dispersal order to the group,”
he noted, but added that the “crowd began to throw rocks and bottles at officers.”
Video
footage and photos of the incident suggest that the crowd was comprised of mostly pro-abortion protesters—with some
holding coat hangers—who were demonstrating and later clashing with police after a report published Monday suggested that the U.S. Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark abortion law. They had gathered in front of the Los Angeles federal courthouse near 1st and Broadway streets,
according to a Los Angeles Times reporter.
People were chanting pro-abortion slogans, including: “No more shame, no more silence. Forced motherhood is fascist violence.” Some also chanted, “Pro-woman, pro-child, pro-choice,” according to the LA Times.
Footage also showed the protesters trying to hit police cars that arrived to disperse the crowd that took over an intersection, while a glass door at a Planet Fitness was smashed. Authorities declared it an unlawful assembly at around 9:30 p.m. local time, reported the LA Times.
There were also protests that occurred in New York City, Washington, D.C, and other major cities. But in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said that he would propose a state constitutional amendment for abortion.
“We are proposing an amendment to enshrine the right to choose in the California constitution. We can’t trust SCOTUS to protect the right to abortion, so we’ll do it ourselves. Women will remain protected here,” he
wrote in a Twitter post on May 3.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Supreme Court issued a statement
confirming the authenticity of the draft ruling, while Chief Justice John Roberts promised an investigation into how it was leaked to the media.
“To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations,” Roberts
wrote in a statement, “it will not succeed,” while he added that the “work of the Court will not be affected in any way.”
