More than 50 people arrived Sunday afternoon for a pro-life Life Chain event at U.S. 90 and Wise Street in Patterson. The show of opposition to legalized abortion started in California 33 years ago and has since spread to more than 2,000 cities across the country, according to the event's organizers. Bottom Photo: The Rev. Herb Bennerfield, pastor at Patterson's St. Joseph Catholic Church, organizes the event before the 2 p.m. start.
Dozens gather in Patterson for pro-life event
PATTERSON -- As Roe v. Wade appears more vulnerable than it has for 30 years, more than 50 local people turned out Sunday to make their opposition to abortion known to people passing on U.S. 90.
They participated in a Life Chain, part of a national movement to demonstrate opposition to abortion. The people who arrived beginning about 2 p.m. Sunday waved at westbound drivers on U.S. 90 near Wise Street, holding signs that said "Stop Abortion Now" and "40 Years is Enough."
Fifty-one were on hand for the start of the event, and more people were walking up.
They come together at a time when a Republican president has nominated a social conservative for the Supreme Court, and voters will see an anti-abortion constitutional amendment on the Nov. 3 ballot.
"Not only is this election season," said the Rev. Herb Bennerfield, pastor at nearby St. Joseph Catholic Church, "but we have the Love Life amendment to the constitution. "We've got to get that passed."
The amendment would write strong anti-abortion language into the state constitution.
Angela Stelly is the captain for the pro-amendment coalition in St. Mary Parish.
In other states, Stelly said, courts have ruled in favor of a right to abortion even though the procedure isn't specifically mentioned in their constitutions.
"Basically, [the Louisiana amendment] would state that the right to abortion, the right to have an abortion, cannot be found in the Louisiana Constitution," she said.
The prospect of another solid pro-life vote on the Supreme Court is raising hopes about abortion opponents and despair among those who consider abortion a question for the woman to decide.
The same court ruled in the 1973 Roe decision that states can't outlaw abortions outright. The court has since limited the prohibition to laws banning abortion before fetal viability.
Over the intervening decades, new justices, even those appointed by conservative presidents, have stopped short of an outright rejection of Roe. Now, President Donald Trump has nominated Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative, to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The first Life Chain was conducted 33 years ago in California, according to the national organization's website.
Since then, it has grown to encompass Life Chain events in more than 2,000 cities.
"The battle for life will not be won in the courtroom or the voting booth until it is first won in prayer," the Life Chain website says. "We call for pastors to lead the Church in repentance for our nation."