ST. GEORGE — On the eve of the 49th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Pro-Life Utah South Chapter held a rally Saturday downtown at the Town Square Park.

A crowd gathered to see the presentation of the Defense of Life Award, hear a guest speaker, and host a vehicle parade. The award went to the Knights of Columbus and was received on their behalf by John Zudis.

Rally organizer Katherine Larsen gave opening remarks and a prayer by Father Thomas Hernandez, St. George Orthodox Church. A loudspeaker played the song “Unplanned” by Matthew West. Larsen also invited the public to an open house on Sunday at the Hope Pregnancy Care Center. 

Eric Moutsos, former Salt Lake City Police officer spoke to the gathering. He stated that there had been a growing wave of evil to silence people from what they believed. Moutsos pointed out that when he posted the flyer for this rally online, a woman commented that she was not attending the rally because the guest speaker was a man.

“I’d be more inclined to go if women were the keynote speakers about being pregnant,” she said. 

In response to that comment, Moutsos came up with reasons why men must speak on pro-life issues, including: Roughly 50 percent of babies being aborted would be men; the voices of fathers matter; men have a duty to protect human beings and we will be accountable to God for what we say and the things that we don’t say. 

“If you’re a politician or a leader in the community, in any organization, in any church, and you have not been speaking out against this topic, and if you now want to jump on social media and talk about life and health, then you have zero credibility to me, zero credibility,” Moutsos said.

Deaths from COVID have been estimated at five million people worldwide in the last two years. Moutsos said almost 100 million babies had been killed by abortion in the world during the same time.

“Did you know that?“ Moutsos asked. “And we want to talk about life? And we want to talk about health? And we want to talk about safety?” 

Around 73 million induced abortions take place worldwide each year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Six out of 10 (61%) of all unintended pregnancies, and 3 out of 10 (29%) of all pregnancies, end in induced abortion according to their website.

Regulations that force women to travel to attain legal care, or require mandatory counseling or waiting periods, lead to loss of income and other financial costs, and can make abortion inaccessible to women with low resources, according to the WHO website.

The pro-choice research and policy organization Guttmacher Institute shows the following numbers for the United States: Their statistics show abortions down from 1979-1980 when over 29 out of 1000 women had abortions, down to a low of 13.5 per 1000 in 2017, the last year the reports were available. In 2017, the institute reported over 862,000 abortions in the United States.

In an email, Planned Parenthood Utah President Karrie Galloway said:

“The days of legal and accessible abortion across the country are numbered … If Roe is overturned this summer, abortion access could effectively be banned in our state.”

The Planned Parenthood website states, “With our right to control our own bodies teetering on the edge of collapse, this month marks the 49th anniversary of the Supreme Court landmark decision that established the constitutional right to abortion: Roe v Wade was decided on January 22, 1973. But in a few months, the Supreme Court could erase nearly 50 years of precedent by overturning Roe and ending our protected rights.”

The court’s decision is expected in June, which would pave the way for state lawmakers to ban abortion for nearly half the country. 

In 2021, bans and restrictions on abortion reached the highest rate in nearly 50 years. More than 600 new abortion restrictions were proposed in 2021 alone. More than 100 were signed into law.

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