Stephanie Dickrell

sdickrell@stcloudtimes.com

Supporters and critics alike rallied outside the St. Cloud Planned Parenthood clinic Saturday morning.

Chants of "My body, my choice!" were met with prayers "Hail Mary, full of Grace."

Groups were prompted by a national "Defund Planned Parenthood" rally planned for Saturday by the group #ProtestPPCoalition. Supporters of Planned Parenthood planned counter-rallies at the same time.

The protests and rallies come after talks from members of Congress about defunding Planned Parenthood, as well as various measures targeting Planned Parenthood and abortions at the state level. Discussion has also come amid talk of repealing the Affordable Care Act.

Protests have been planned all around the country and several Minnesota cities, including St. Paul, Mankato, Duluth, Rochester and Moorhead.

More than 100 supporters of Planned Parenthood carried hot pink signs, adorned with phrases promoting women's health, contraception and the right to abortion.

More than 50 critics of Planned Parenthood marched with yellow "Choose Life" signs and calls to defund Planned Parenthood.

People came from Monticello, Foley, Little Falls, Cold Spring as well as the St. Cloud area. Many were students from St. Cloud State University.

Brody Hagemeier, a senior and president of SCSU for Life, organized the protest for the anti-abortion side.

“I’m coming to share the message of life with every car that’s driving by and everyone that’s be able to see it,” he said. “Right now there are hundreds of other rallies occurring nationwide outside of Planned Parenthoods in every state in the country and we’re in solidarity with them. We welcome our friends on the other side of the aisle who support planned parenthood… We’re glad they can hear our message. Because at the end of the day, Planned Parenthood doesn’t provide the women’s health care that they think it does.”

Despite what some say about people hoping defund Planned Parenthood not caring about women's health care, Hagemeier argued the opposite.

“It’s a really good time to show that women’s health care is always relevant, and not just standing up for mothers and children, but also fathers too, everyone,” he said. “Women’s health truly affects everyone and it’s something everyone should care about. As a pro-life individual, all life matters. And I’m standing here in solidarity with dozens of other pro-life people to show that Planned Parenthood is not providing the women’s health care that women truly need, that mothers truly need. Planned Parenthood provides abortions.”

Brianna Garrison helped organize the supporters, connecting with the Women's Center at SCSU and a local group from Industrial Workers of the World. Expect Resistance, a group that formed after the presidential election to meet and discuss current issues, was also part of the supporter group.

She said the group was rallying to stand in solidarity and support for Planned Parenthood.

“It’s an essential health care provider here in St. Cloud and around the nation,” she said. “Nationally there are protests to defund Planned Parenthood, and we think it’s better to defend Planned Parenthood.”

Garrison said she was happy to see such a large group show up Saturday.

“It really shows that when St. Cloud needs to come together, we really come together,” she said. “It sends a clear message that if they want to defund Planned Parenthood, that we’re going to defend Planned Parenthood.”

The event was pretty civil, which was a concern for both sides due to the passion felt by people on both sides of the issue. There were a couple small incidents between the groups early on, Barrison said.

People on the supporter side distributed a non-engagement policy to people that joined the event. It asked supporters to avoid engaging in physical and verbal exchanges with protesters.

“But we have been pretty strict on non-engagement. We want to keep a peaceful environment, especially for Planned Parenthood,” she said. “We don’t want to send the wrong message.”

Hagemeier agreed.

“So far, so good. There’s a healthy level of tension which keeps people thinking. Luckily we’re getting a lot of feedback from the vehicles driving by. But there haven’t been any arguments, there haven’t been any physical altercations at all, … which is a pleasant surprise, regarding the controversy of topics such as abortion and Planned Parenthood. But I’ve been very impressed by the civility here today. There have been a lot of good conversations.”

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Groups to rally for Planned Parenthood across the state

For more

For Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, visit www.plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-minnesota-north-dakota-south-dakota.For #Protest PP group, visit http://protestpp.com/about.To learn more, participate or donate to groups involved: