HELENA — On Saturday, about 400 individuals got here to the Montana State Capitol to rally towards restrictions on abortion rights.
They took half in a “March for Reproductive Rights,” one among a whole lot of occasions throughout the nation below the umbrella of the nationwide Girls’s March. At midday, the members marched across the Capitol, holding indicators and chanting slogans like “Arise, battle, again, reproductive rights are below assault.”
“Us as ladies all must battle for our rights collectively,” stated Ella Stoddard, a scholar from Helena who attended the rally.
Audio system criticized a sequence of legal guidelines handed by the Montana Legislature this 12 months that tightened abortion restrictions.
“We want equality, we’d like fairness restored into our households, our communities and our nation,” stated Marci McLean.
Three of these new legal guidelines – which might ban abortions after 20 weeks of being pregnant, limit entry to abortion-inducing medicine and require physicians to ask ladies looking for an abortion in the event that they need to take heed to the fetal heartbeat – have been set to enter impact Oct. 1. A decide in Billings briefly put the legal guidelines on maintain this week.
Through the rally, state Rep. Mary Ann Dunwell, D-Helena, shared a narrative from her personal life. As a younger lady residing in Louisiana, she selected to have an abortion and traveled to Texas to have the process, as a result of there have been no nearer suppliers.
“I felt shamed,” she stated. “It was a tricky, powerful resolution I needed to make – however, you recognize, it was my resolution. We have to defend that proper for all of you, for the entire younger ladies.”
These collaborating within the rally stated the battle over these insurance policies goes to proceed.
“It warms my coronary heart, truthfully, that lots of people are combating for ladies’s rights, as a result of we’d like it,” Stoddard stated. “It’s wonderful.”
Marches have been additionally held Saturday in Nice Falls, Billings, Missoula and Whitefish.
There have additionally been demonstrations in favor of limiting abortions. Final month, activists began their 40 Days for Life fall vigil. Demonstrators have been gathering exterior companies that help or provide abortions to wish for an finish to the follow.
