Pro-life and pro-choice activists converged on Brother Bryan Park in Birmingham on Saturday for the 2017 Birmingham March for Life.
BIRMINGHAM – The Greater Birmingham National Organization for Women (NOW) organized a protest to the 2017 Birmingham March for Life Saturday at Brother Bryan Park located in the heart of Birmingham. As many as 1,000 pro-life marchers gathered at the park, and as many as 100 protestors arrived to share their pro-choice stance. Security was tight; as many as 12 officers and four dogs patrolled the park. Cullman activist and council member of the Alabama Alliance for Healthy Youth, Tori Partridge, traveled to Birmingham to stand with the pro-choice protestors.
Bruno has connections to Cullman County—specifically Hanceville. First Source for Women is a pregnancy center for women in Hanceville, and their goal is to provide free pregnancy tests, free education and free general aid to women throughout pregnancy. The center is actively raising funds for a mobile ultrasound unit for those who can’t travel to the center; currently, there are only two mobile units in the state. One is located in Huntsville and the other is located in Mobile. The First Source mobile unit will be the first in central Alabama.
As noon approached Saturday, tensions were as high as the sun. Chants of “Plan your parenthood!” and “Her body, her choice!” erupted as the pro-life marchers began leaving the park for their route through Southside. Counter protestors gathered at the mouth of a walkway so the marchers were forced to hear the words of the pro-choice crowd. Several conversations were instantly sparked as some marchers tried to plead with protestors about changing their views. Graphic protest signs reading “Pro-Choice, Anti-Hanger” and “Never Again” (under the likeness of a bloody clothes hanger) abounded. Protesters said the signs are a reminder of a dark past, before Roe vs. Wade, when back alley abortions were commonplace, and many women died due to lack of reproductive care.
For more information on the United for Life Foundation, visit http://www.unitedforlifefoundation.org/.
To learn more about the Greater Birmingham NOW, see http://now.org/chapter/greater-birmingham-now/.
Find the Alabama Alliance for Healthy Youth at http://www.aidsalabama.org/advocacy/alabama-alliance-for-healthy-youth/.