Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets across the US in protests aimed at countering a conservative drive to restrict access to abortions.
In Washington, about 10,000 protesters rallied in a square near the White House before marching to the US Supreme Court, which will have the final say on the contentious issue.
The protesters held signs that read "Mind your uterus" and "Make abortion legal," with several women - and men - dressed like late Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, America's iconic women's rights crusader, who died last year.
The perennial fight over the procedure in America has become even more intense since a Texas law went into effect 1 September banning almost all abortions, unleashing a fierce counterattack in the courts and Congress, but with few public demonstrations until now.
Two days before the Supreme Court is due to reconvene, the rallies took place in more than 600 cities, according to organisers, who said that hundreds of thousands of people gathered across all 50 states.
In Dublin, protesters gathered at the Spire in O'Connell Street in solidarity with those in Texas fighting the recent effective ban on abortion.
Some were dressed as handmaids to lampoon what they called the "retrograde and misogynistic law" and to call on the US government to act to uphold abortion rights.
The perennial fight over the procedure in America has become even more intense since Texas adopted a law on 1 September banning almost all abortions, unleashing a fierce counterattack in the courts and in Congress, but with few public demonstrations until now.
Two days before the US Supreme Court, which will have the final say on the contentious issue, is due to reconvene, nearly 200 organisations have called on abortion rights defenders to make their voices heard from coast to coast.
The flagship event was in the nation's capital Washington, where a crowd of all ages - mostly women but men too - rallied under sunny skies at a square near the White House, many wearing purple masks with the words "bans off my body."
Protesters danced to pop music blared from loudspeakers, as activists addressed the crowd in recorded interviews broadcast on large screens, and slogans like "abortion is healthcare" or "abort the Texas Taliban" were held aloft on signs, or daubed on protesters' bodies.
A handful of counter protesters shouted "abortion is murder" but there was no violence.
Later the crowd was to march toward the Supreme Court, which nearly 50 years ago recognised the right of women to have an abortion in its landmark Roe v Wade ruling.
Now the court, stacked by former president Donald Trump with conservative justices, seems ready to head in the opposite direction.
"Women are humans, we are full humans, and we need to be treated like full humans," said Laura Bushwitz, a 66-year-old retired teacher from Florida, wearing a dress with portraits of women activists and politicians, like Michelle Obama.
"We should be able to have our own choice on what we want to do with our bodies. Period," she said. "Hear that, SCOTUS,?" she asked, referring to the US Supreme Court.
The court has already refused to block the Texas law and has agreed to review a restrictive Mississippi law that could provide an opportunity to overturn the 1973 Roe v Wade precedent, that guaranteed the legal right to an abortion up until a fetus is viable outside the womb.
Rallies were planned in at least two conservative states' capitals, Austin and Jackson, as well as in more than 600 cities in all 50 states.
According to the organisers, nearly a quarter million people are expected to turn out across the United States.
So far this year, 19 states have adopted 63 laws restricting access to abortions.
If the high court were to overturn Roe v Wade, every US state would be free to ban or allow abortions.
That would mean 36 million women in 26 states - nearly half of American women of reproductive age - would likely lose the legal right to an abortion, according to a Planned Parenthood report released yesterday.
