Abortion takes center stage at Friendship Square

Protesters gathered Saturday afternoon in Moscow's Friendship Square to share their right to life message and mark the anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.

A group of counter protesters also gathered across the street.

Moscow Right to Life President Sam Paul estimated approximately 350 people attended the anti-abortion march.

"We believe that murder is wrong, and around 3,000 children are killed every day," Paul said. "We have a genocide happening."

Nicole Manzione, president of the Students For Life Club at Washington State University, was one of the final people to leave the gathering. She said there are many options in the Moscow-Pullman area for mothers who are unsure or concerned about their pregnancy. One of those options is the Palouse Care Network, which provides support to mothers and children up to 5 years old.

"We're here to educate, inform and change hearts and minds," she said.

Marcher Reuben Henriquez, a senior at the New Saint Andrew's College, said he first heard about the protest through Facebook. He said he believes "a person's a person, no matter how small."

Henriquez said he was glad counter protestors joined them along Main Street, because "it means that people are recognizing that there is an issue. Obviously there is strong support on both sides."

Audrey Faunce, a University of Idaho law student, led Saturday's counter protest. She said she didn't hold the protest to be against the anti-abortion protesters, but she wanted another voice to be heard.

"If I was walking down the street and saw that I would feel alienated," she said.

Faunce said she received help from the University of Idaho's Generation Action Center, which donated markers, poster boards and condoms to the counter protest.

"No one is really pro-abortion -- they just want to have the right to choose," Faunce said. "Choice matters."

Fellow counter protestor and Moscow resident Jana Hill said reproductive rights and access to things as small as birth control or as controversial as abortions are not just important to straight women, but also gay women and transgender men.

"Reproductive rights are really important -- and abortions are a huge part of that," she said.

Katie Short can be reached at (208) 883-4633, or by email to kshort@dnews.com.

Visit the Moscow-Pullman Daily News (Moscow, Idaho) at www.dnews.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.