Anthem community members march for abortion rights, counterprotesters gather

Hundreds of people gathered in the parking lot of Anthem Community Center Saturday night to march in support of "human rights, women's rights, LGBTQIA+ rights, and the rights of all menstruating peoples," according to organizers.

Chloe Gelbaugh, 22, organized Saturday's march for people that have been affected by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and give community members an opportunity to have their voices be heard.

"It's really just not a women's rights issue, this affects the LGBTQ community and everyone that is just seen as an outsider in our society," said Gelbaugh. "I recently had a daughter back in April, so my primary force to do this is for her."

The initial meeting spot for the march was at the Anthem Veterans Memorial near the community center but apprehension from members of the community and local organizations led Gelbaugh to change the location.

"The initial meeting spot that I chose was the Veterans Memorial," said Gelbaugh, who said she chose the memorial because it was an obvious marker for residents of the community to meet and gather for the event.

"So I completely understand their apprehension because of what has incited in the protests that happened down at the Capitol. We had zero intentions of lingering, zero intentions of defacing or disrespecting the community, especially the memorial," Gelbaugh said.

Members of Arizona Proud Boys and Anthem Minute Men stationed themselves at the Memorial to counterprotest reproductive rights marchers.

Gelbaugh said she worked with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office to protect community members who were marching and secure a safe route for the demonstration, away from counterprotesters at the memorial.

"The MCSO has been speaking with them, trying to get them to tone down a little bit just because when I initially created this event, I wasn't expecting this kind of turn out," said Gelbaugh.

Marchers at the event were concerned about the presence of guns and feared for their safety around counterprotesters.

"I reiterated that they are not to be armed," said Maricopa County Sheriff's Deputy Robert Halliday. "If they are found to be armed in the park, they will be trespassed and potentially arrested for that. That's a park rule, they all know that, they are aware of it. Their organizer explained to them to leave it in the car."

Marchers took the streets just before 6:30 p.m. when temperatures were well over 100 degrees. Water bottles were frequently handed out to marchers so they could stay hydrated in the heat.

Officers and patrol vehicles with the MCSO guided demonstrators around the premise of Anthem Community Park, which was closed off to visitors for the event.

Demonstrators chanted "my body, my choice," while holding signs that said "mind your own uterus," "stars, stripes, and equal rights," and "smash the patriarchy."

Some motorists driving by the march honked and threw fists in the air in support of marchers, while others hurled expletives.

Trish Boone, who was in attendance at the march, held up a sign that said "patriot for human rights."

"I think the patriot term has been coined by the far right to the point where they think that they're the only patriots in this country," said Boone. "But we are all patriots, we all want America to be a better place and we are willing to vote for that, fight for that, march for that and do everything we need to do to keep our democracy strong."

Boone added that she believes the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is a human rights issue.

"Bodily autonomy is a basic human right," said Boone. "If you don't have that, you don't really have any rights. I go to the protests downtown but this is close to my community and I thought that was great."

Marchers returned back to the Community Center parking lot just before 7:30 p.m. where calls to "vote" in the upcoming midterm elections radiated through the crowd.

"I think the biggest part of this is with the upcoming election, getting people to vote and really taking advantage of their rights in order to do so," said Gelbaugh.

Reach breaking news reporter Haleigh Kochanski at hkochanski@arizonarepublic.com or on Twitter @HaleighKochans.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Anthem members march for abortion rights, counterprotesters gather