ST. LOUIS — More than a hundred people marched downtown to the Gateway Arch grounds on Saturday morning calling for an end to abortion.
The demonstration brought together Catholic and Lutheran leaders as well as activists working to organize students and dissuade pregnant women from terminating their pregnancies.
Participants carried signs reading “Abortion abolitionist;†“I am the Post-Roe generation;†and “I demand protection at conception.â€
The annual event marked a bit of a victory lap for the movement. The past year has seen the U.S. Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a federal constitutional right to abortion, kicking off a race to impose restrictions in Republican-led states.
More than a dozen, including Missouri, have banned the procedure outright. Others have made access much more difficult. And in recent weeks, a lawsuit out of Texas briefly threatened the future availability of pills that enable about half of the abortions conducted every year.
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But Brian Westbrook, the executive director for Coalition Life, which helps organize the march and places volunteers outside of abortion clinics in Illinois to encourage women to continue their pregnancies, said the movement can’t rest.
Abortion rights supporters are taking steps to put a plan rolling back Missouri’s restrictions on the ballot in 2024; a similar campaign torpedoed a ban in Kansas last year. Across the river in Illinois, Democratic lawmakers are considering new restrictions on faith-based centers that encourage women to carry pregnancies to term and offer assistance.
“We want to say very clearly that we’re not done,†Westbrook said.
A handful of abortion rights supporters accompanied the marchers on their mile-long journey down Market Street to the Arch grounds, voicing their opposition.
