Anti-abortion activists rally on Hayden Lawn

Shelley Allsup of Scottsdale, left, and Trish Shroyer of Phoenix, right, show their support during a Anti-abortion rally and prayer vigil on Hayden Lawn on Thursday. (Matt Pavelek/The State Press)

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Slideshow: Pro-life Rally [5]

About 300 anti-abortion activists and students gathered on Tempe campus Hayden Lawn in protest of current abortion laws at the 2009 Annual Pro-Life Commemoration and Rally on Thursday night.

The rally has been held every Jan. 22 — the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision guaranteeing abortion rights to women — for the past 36 years.

Christopher White, executive director for Arizona Students for Life, said the 2009 Arizona Life Rally aimed to raise community awareness and involvement in the anti-abortion cause and to provide young women with support and information on options for handling crisis pregnancies.

The rally was also meant to inject energy into the anti-abortion movement in Arizona, White said, and to be a chance for people to “rededicate themselves” to the cause.

“This issue will not be ignored, and there is still a huge amount of the population that is outraged and will not let this issue [of the right to abortion] die,” he said.

The anti-abortion message is especially important to convey on college campuses, White said. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site, women ages 18 to 24 account for more than 50 percent of all abortions ­— more than any other age demographic.

ASU Students for Life hosted the rally for the first time this year, prompting the change in locale from a march on the state Capitol in downtown Phoenix to Hayden Lawn.

Andrea Summers, public relations manager for ASU Students for Life, said the issue of a woman’s right to have an abortion is still unresolved.

“To me, abortion is just another human-rights issue,” said Summers, a philosophy senior who is also a State Press columnist. “Those unborn still deserve a chance to live and to thrive. We shouldn’t pit the rights of woman against child.

“It’s a segment of the community being excluded under law,” she said. “I don’t believe a child is just ‘part of the woman’s body.’ It’s a unique being, deserving of a right to live.”

Even in extreme circumstances such as rape pregnancies, Summers argued, abortions still exclude the unborn child from the choosing of his or her fate.

“The circumstances of conception don’t make [the fetus] any less valuable or deserving of live,” she said. “To bring true healing to a woman, I can’t believe that another act of violence can bring an end to her problems.”

However, other students on the Tempe campus Thursday disagreed with the message of the rally.

“It’s not their place to judge,” said Kelly Lynch, a secondary education freshman. “I don’t think [revoking Roe v. Wade] would be fair. There’s rape and other cases where [the option of abortion] is necessary.”

Film and media studies freshman Patrick Carroll, who supports abortion rights, knew the rally was taking place on Hayden Lawn but did not plan on attending and hearing the anti-abortion message.

“I understand the opposing point of view, but I’m not convinced,” he said. “I think [the decision of abortion] should ultimately just be the woman’s choice, not government mandate. Anti-abortion laws are a restriction of freedom or right by the government to control your own body,” Carroll said.

Melanie Pritchard, education director for Arizona Right to Life, said the theme of this year’s rally is “Be a voice for the right choice.”

“It may be an unwanted pregnancy, but no child is an unwanted child,” she said.

Pritchard said the pro-choice stance of newly inaugurated President Barack Obama does not detract from the potential effectiveness of a rally with a anti-abortion agenda.

“Honestly, whatever Obama decides on abortion laws, if women are educated and choose not to have an abortion, don’t show up [to abortion clinics], then the laws don’t matter,” she said.

In total, 16 anti-abortion groups were involved in the rally, including Silent Women, a group that provides information to young women about alternatives to abortion.

The anti-abortion activists first organized in Tempe Thursday night with a prayer march in front of Planned Parenthood on Apache Boulevard at 5 p.m., lining the streets and holding up signs with anti-abortion slogans.

At 6 p.m., participants began their mass migration to Hayden Lawn, enjoying a anti-abortion concert by rapper Vocab Malone and Christian music artist Justin Unger. The rally was followed by a candlelight prayer vigil commemorating the lives lost and affected by abortion. Speakers at the rally included a survivor of a saline abortion, a woman who gave up her child for adoption instead of abortion and the adoptive parents of her child.

Reach the reporter at trabens@asu.edu [6].