50 years after Roe, anti-abortion marchers celebrate in Spokane on Sunday, while abortion rights advocates march in Coeur d'Alene

Jan. 22—Marchers on both sides of the Washington-Idaho border, and on both sides of the abortion issue, made their voices heard Sunday.

The Walk for Life took place in Spokane on the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the now-overturned Supreme Court decision that had ensured a right to an abortion. Abortion opponents celebrated, while the Kootenai County Women's March helped organize a march through the streets of Coeur d'Alene on Sunday afternoon, lamenting the loss of that right.

Walk for Life Northwest

For the first time since it began seven years ago, the Walk for Life Northwest had a reason to celebrate.

A large gathering of antiabortion protesters gathered in nearly freezing conditions at Riverfront Park on Sunday afternoon after a dusting of snow the night before to celebrate the Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the constitutional right to abortion last summer. They also came to protest the continued protection of abortion rights in Washington and many other states.

"The Dobbs decision was a legal triumph and we need to celebrate," said Charlotte Oliva, an event organizer, to the crowd before the march. "But we need to do more."

The crowd, which event organizers estimated at about 2,000 people, marched through downtown at about 12:45 p.m. with a large police presence blocking off the roads. Many carried signs reading "I am the Post Roe Generation," a slogan from the Students for Life organization, while others carried more politically oriented signs and apparel supporting former President Donald Trump.

"I'm optimistic for the future," said Danielle Wehr, a Spokane Valley resident who came to support the antiabortion rally downtown. "I think it's a movement that's becoming more powerful and we're seeing more change. I didn't think it was going to happen this soon."

Luke Smith said he also hopes to someday see abortion made illegal in Washington. Smith brought his family to the rally in support of their religious faith, but also to encourage people to choose more "godly" alternatives to abortion, he said.

"We're not satisfied with Washington not choosing to be on God's side," said his daughter Patience Smith. "We believe God is against abortion. We side with him."

Prior to the march, those in attendance heard from guest speaker Louis Brown, executive director of the Christ Medicus Foundation, a Catholic health care nonprofit that focuses on religious liberty in the medical industry.

"We have just begun to fight," said Brown to a cheering crowd. "Dobbs gives us a new opportunity for dignity in our nation."

In Brown's opinion, the antiabortion movement picks up where the abolitionist and civil rights movements left off. Brown, who describes himself as a civil rights attorney, said Roe v. Wade heralded a "culture of death" and described it as "the most evil, immoral, and unjust Supreme Court decision in American history."

Using language more commonly expressed in liberal circles, Brown denounced abortion as "racist" and the practice of "white supremacists" because it disproportionately is practiced on women of color, he said. Similarly, some in attendance held signs that read "pro-woman, pro-life."

Oliva said the rally on Sunday was encouraging, but said the event will continue in Spokane as long as abortion is protected.

"What this walk does, in part, is to show how much support there is for life," she said. "They like to call us fringe radicals, which is hard for me to accept. I am convinced the majority of Americans don't like abortion."

Women's March in Coeur d'Alene

Marchers in Coeur d'Alene said Sunday's anniversary was a reminder of a right that had been lost and for which future generations will have to fight.

Tenaya Hergert was attending her first women's march for reproductive rights. She told the crowd of more than 80 people at the Coeur d'Alene downtown library that she went to Planned Parenthood in college to receive care that prevented progression of cervical cancer.

"I do know Planned Parenthood saved my life," Hergert said. "I do know Planned Parenthood was the only one that would see me."

Later, while marching along Sherman Avenue along with her rescue dog, Lilly, Hergert said the overturning of the United States Supreme Court decision, and the trigger law upheld by Idaho's Supreme Court that created a near-total abortion ban in the state, showed that future generations would need to continue to fight.

"I don't think we ever thought we'd lose that right," Hergert said. "I think it's something that our parents, or grandparents, fought really hard for, and we just — the right to vote, abortion rights, they're just things we took for granted."

Also among the crowd of marchers, who held signs containing messages such as "Guns have more rights than women" and "We will not go back to 1950," were Teresa Dean and her daughter, Keshia Berglin. Dean was attending her first march at Berglin's urging, and told the crowd that she had her daughter while attending Lakeland High School, just before graduation. She then got pregnant again, and had an abortion to focus on raising her daughter.

"I don't want to see anyone, ever, have that choice taken away from them," Dean said.

As the group prepared to march, Berglin said it was important for people to see that feelings about abortion in Idaho aren't monolithic.

"I think it's important, especially in North Idaho," said Berglin, who also graduated from Lakeland High School. "You hear a lot of the other side. I think it's important to show up and show that people do believe in pro-choice here."

As they marched, some of them in green Kootenai County Women's March T-shirts, Teresa Borrenpohl led the crowd in chants through a megaphone, checking on the progress of marchers along the avenue. Borrenpohl told marchers that she carried an umbrella with her, a token that she carried from a trip with a woman who needed an abortion and who used the umbrella to shield herself from protesters outside a clinic.

"I was so grateful that I could provide that support," Borrenpohl said. "And I know that so many of you would provide that same support."