Protesters Rally In Boise Against Abortion Law

About 1,000 singing, sign-carrying demonstrators trooped from Julia Davis Park to Idaho’s Statehouse on Saturday to continue the 22-year fight to outlaw abortion.

Freshman state Rep. Dave Baumann, R-Boise, was among those leading the annual march and rally marking the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion.

Police said the few hecklers encountered along the eight-block route caused no problems.

Right to Life of Idaho President Patrick Benson of Nampa pledged from the Capitol steps that his group would carry on the effort against “the most flagrant abuse of human rights ever perpetrated in this nation.”

A decline in abortions performed in Idaho from about 2,200 in 1983 to 1,300 in 1993 and approximately 1,000 last year shows anti-abortion forces are winning, he said.

“We’ll continue to push for legislation, we’ll continue to educate, we’ll continue to do whatever we can in a peaceful manner to succeed in the overturn of Roe versus Wade,” Benson said.

He encouraged people to write their legislators and members of the congressional delegation, and to donate what money they could.