About 1,000 people rallied Saturday at the Indiana Statehouse to protest the state’s new anti-abortion law, which bans abortions based on a fetus's race, gender or potential disability and requires aborted remains to be buried or cremated.
The demonstration comes exactly one month to the day since the law was passed and more than two weeks since Gov. Mike Pence signed it.
Annette Gross is no stranger to rallies at the Statehouse. She organized last year’s demonstration against the religious freedom bill and this year helped organize the rally against the anti-abortion law. Gross says the protest wasn’t really possible before the bill was approved by the General Assembly.
“You really can’t get people that involved until after the fact,” she says. “We didn’t know what the wording was -- people just didn’t talk about it. We just didn’t know about it.”
All versions of the bill were posted online throughout the process and all committee hearings and floor debate on it broadcast on the internet.
But Lisa Johnson says with Republicans in control of the Statehouse, people feel helpless. Johnson, a teacher from Indianapolis, says she hopes the rally helps send a message that will be felt in the elections.
“[It's] just showing the governor how unpopular he is,” she says. “This is a very large crowd. He needs to know this. He needs to know that women aren’t happy and they aren’t happy with him.”
Indiana Right to Life, one of the law’s staunchest supporters, calls the rally an “ugly reminder of the hate directed at the unborn.”
