Residents protest on Roe anniversary

Dozens of protestors gathered in front of the Sanders County Courthouse on Saturday, commemorating the 38th anniversary of the controversial 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which effectively legalized abortion nationwide.

According to event organizer, Don Gratz, Sanders County residents from Plains, Noxon, Trout Creek and Thompson Falls joined their counterparts across the country in voicing their pro-life stance while battling the frigid January air.

“I strongly believe that a person’s silence, very often, can be construed as condoning whatever is going on,” Gratz said. “We have to be willing to speak up.”

Protestors held pro-life and anti-abortion signs, banners, and even an American flag as they marched down the streets Thompson Falls while singing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

Although America is a land where everyone, even the unborn, is promised life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, Gratz felt that’s not always the case. He said the hymn is symbolic of another time in American history when a segment of the population was oppressed, having it’s rights ignored.

Gratz found the outrage of many Americans after the Sept. 11, 2001 bombing of the World Trade Center ironic, because every day in our country between 3,000 and 4,000 babies lives are “snuffed out” with little or no notice.

Aside from raising awareness for an important issue, Gratz feels that part of the march’s significance is the way it brings people together.

“A lot of people who have a strong feeling about protecting life, get so busy in our lives that we don’t think about it. Out of sight, out of mind,” he said.

Also, Gratz was pleased to see a pastor from the Assembly of God Church walking side by side with a Deacon from the Catholic Church, noting that some issues are significant enough to cause people to overlook subtle differences.

Gratz organized the first march in Thompson Falls four years ago, and has since seen upwards of 90 activists travel from all four corners of the county annually to make their opinions known. Numbers were down slightly this year, however, Gratz estimated sixty citizens involved.

While the march was taking place in Thompson Falls, two women held their own signs to support infant life across the valley in Plains.

One of the women was Plains resident Terrie Woods. Woods founded the Blessings from Above pregnancy center seven years ago, but has been silently showing her support for would-be mothers on Jan. 22 for nearly two decades.

Woods said she was shown a graphic depiction of an abortion more than twenty years ago and she knew she would never be the same again. Woods, a mother of three at the time, said, “the emotion, pain and realization of what was being done to these babies was so overwhelming that all I wanted to do was get it to stop.”

Woods is careful to make the distinction between being pro-life and anti-abortion, be

cause the former is positive and uplifting while the latter is judgmental and negative.

Woods said her goal is for people who pass by to talk about teen pregnancy before it happens.

“Someone is going to say what did that sign say, or read it out loud and say what is she talking about?,” she said.

Woods can empathize with the stigma and shame experienced by many young mothers, as she herself became pregnant as a high school senior. She feels that nothing, however, can dim the joy that comes from being a mother. She believes that once parents and daughters get over the initial shock of an unexpected pregnancy, motherhood will become an unparalleled joy.  

Although Plains resident Amy Stinnett, the other sign bearer, has held a pro-life viewpoint for some time, she has recently become active in publically demonstrating her beliefs.

Stinnett has participated in pro-life movements like the Genocide Awareness Project, and Life Chain, a prayer movement. Stinnett’s goal is to bring the issue of abortion to the minds of college students in Montana.