Opposing sides rally at Planned Parenthood in St. Paul
Updated 5:10 p.m. | Published 10 a.m.
Thousands of demonstrators, including people from both sides of the abortion issue, gathered outside of Planned Parenthood in St. Paul on Saturday morning.
At 10 a.m., St. Paul police estimated the crowd for both rallies numbered more than 5,000, with Planned Parenthood supporters far outnumbering anti-abortion protesters. The protesters took up two city blocks behind the Planned Parenthood on University Avenue.
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Both crowds carried signs, chanted and sang. The group pushing to defund Planned Parenthood led a prayer group and had several speakers. The support Planned Parenthood group used bullhorns to lead the crowd in chants. Many wore pink hats that were seen at the women's march weeks ago.
Cathy Vanderbosch, a nurse, was among the those who came out to support Planned Parenthood and protest the push to defund the organization.
"I believe strongly in women's rights. I believe we have to provide services to people that don't have services," she said. "We have to provide health care to women in situations they can't get out of. It is something I fought for years and years ago and I'm glad to see the next generation picking up the fight. We have to keep this going."
The Planned Parenthood supporters were on the other side of a barricade from several hundred anti-abortion advocates, one of more than 200 scheduled protests nationwide by the #ProtestPP Coalition. The group is calling for Planned Parenthood to be stripped of all federal funding.
Jack Dorcey from White Bear Lake was among the Planned Parenthood protesters.
"There's no reason that I should have to fund something that I find morally wrong and abortion to me is the death of an innocent human being," he said. "If Planned Parenthood wants to stay open they don't need our $500 million dollars that we give them every year. They can stay open and do abortions, but they don't need my money."
Planned Parenthood does receive government funding, but not directly. It receives payments and grants from federal funds, including payments from Medicaid managed care plans.
Sarah Stoesz, Planned Parenthood's President and CEO for Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota called Saturday an unprecedented event.
"We've never seen anything like this at Planned Parenthood here in Minnesota or anywhere across the country," she said. "Here in Minnesota we have 64,000 patients and about 24,000 of them would lose access to their healthcare if congress is allowed to 'so called' defund Planned Parenthood. So it's a very serious matter."
The rallies, which started at 8:30 a.m. wrapped up around noon.