On the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, 130 pro-abortion rights protesters assembled on the east side of South Dearborn Street, holding signs and chanting through bullhorns while across the street a similar sized group of anti-abortion advocates rallied in celebration of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision.

Aside from cross talk between both sides, the event stayed peaceful as dozens of police cars lined the street outside Chicago’s Kluczynski Federal Plaza on Saturday, separating the groups.

About an hour into the event, a verbal altercation occurred between two members from opposing sides while they marched from Federal Plaza to other locations in The Loop including Daley Center Plaza and City Hall. Seven police officers stood between the two people as they shouted expletives at each other. One held a “Stop Abortion Now” sign while the other was dressed in black and wore a mask obscuring most of their face.

“The fact that they’re only able to fill maybe a 10th of Federal Plaza is a good sign,” Andy Thayer of the Gay Liberation Network, which stands in solidarity with the pro-abortion rights movement, said of the anti-abortion gatherers. “But we can’t be complacent because they have the courts and so many of the legislators behind them. That’s why we have to be in the streets.”

Pride flags and cardboard signs decorated the east side of Federal Plaza. “Two, four, six, eight, abortion rights in every state!” protestors chanted.

Many attendees came from neighboring states such as Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, with some as far as Georgia.

“Folks across the street, you should agree with me that if a woman does not want an abortion, she should not have to get one,” Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action League, shouted while pointing across the street at the pro-abortion rights supporters.

Beneath Alexander Calder’s Flamingo statue, local leaders in the anti-abortion community, including Peter Breen, a former state representative and current vice-president of Thomas More Society, spoke with frustration about the work Illinois lawmakers are doing to expand access to abortion care.

“The elected officials in Illinois are trying to turn us into the abortion capital of the middle of the country,” he said.

[ The first year without Roe v. Wade: How abortion access has shifted in Illinois and beyond ]

Members of the Thomas More Society, a legal nonprofit for conservative causes, said they are working on a lawsuit they plan to file against Gov. J.B. Pritzker once he signs into law a bill that would allow the attorney general to fine clinics that don’t offer abortions and use “deceptive practices” to dissuade patients from seeking the procedure.

Leaders of the pro-abortion rights rally descended on The Loop to send a message to the anti-abortion protesters who are traveling to the city from around the state to celebrate the 2022 ruling.

”I don’t want to give those people any air. I don’t think they deserve it. I think they are hateful and cruel,” said Megan Jeyifo, executive director of the Chicago Abortion Fund, which increases women’s health care accessibility for out-of-state-patients. “But I think it’s important for us to publicly say that you’re not welcome in the city of Chicago.”

While Scheidler said his anti-abortion group doesn’t “expect Illinois to become a pro-life haven,” he hopes the state will “come to its senses” and enact policy that he feels is more representative of the interests of residents, such as ending taxpayer funding to abortion clinics and “abortion in the second or third trimesters of a pregnancy.”

”I don’t think Illinoisans are excited about the idea of Illinois becoming a destination state for abortion the way it has,” he said. In the year since Roe v. Wade was overturned, Illinois has kept abortion care highly accessible while neighboring states such as Kentucky and Missouri have implemented some of the most restrictive policies in the nation, according to the Guttmacher Institute. As a result, Illinois has experienced a rise in abortions from out-of-state residents.

Around 20,000 to 30,000 abortions are performed in Illinois on out-of-state patients each year, according to loose predictions from Planned Parenthood of Illinois.

”In the past year alone, we have strengthened legal protections for providers and patients, increased Title X funding, and removed copays for birth control and medication abortions,” Pritzker said in a statement provided to the Tribune, adding that the upcoming budget carves out $18 million for reproductive health initiatives. “As long as I am Governor, abortion will remain safe and legal in Illinois.”

[ One year post-Roe, a wave of abortion providers has come to Illinois. A doctor at one new clinic calls the work ‘life-changing.’ ]

Jennifer Welch, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Illinois, said Chicago residents “probably have not seen a change in their (abortion) care” since the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

“But what’s happening is they’re sitting in a waiting room with somebody who has traveled from another state,” she said. “Some of the patients with them in the waiting room will have driven hundreds of miles for care.”

Scheidler sees it as a good sign that both sides are squaring off at the same place.

”That suggests to me that they can see we’ve got a strong message and we’ve got an important message to deliver, the fact they want to counteract it in some way,” Scheidler said. “So, I welcome their presence as a sort of mark of what we’re doing.”

Bethany Amburgey of Chicago for Abortion rights said they hope that Saturday’s protests ensure “that other groups that call themselves pro-life don’t feel super welcome to hold celebratory events for the fall of Roe in Chicago.”

Chicago Tribune’s Jeremy Gorner contributed.

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