NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Anti-abortion activists in Louisiana celebrated a historic day Friday when Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Some supporters claimed it opened the door for them to share new ideologies with expecting mothers.
“I understand the pain involved with an unplanned pregnancy,” said Kim Schultz, an anti-abortion advocate. “I ultimately chose to place my baby boy up for open adoption at birth. It is the single most impactful and fulfilling choice I have made in my life.”
However, abortion rights advocates were afraid for the future.
“We’re going to start seeing a lot more trauma in hospital rooms because people will feel like they cannot give birth,” ACLU Louisiana Legal Director Nora Ahmed said.
Gov. John Bel Edwards was at an event in Leeville Friday morning. He did not address Roe v. Wade. That was just days after Louisiana’s restrictive abortion law went into effect.
Sen. Bill Cassidy was also in attendance.
“I think the decision making process should be back at the states,” Cassidy said. “And as a pro-life person, I’m very pleased with it.”
Ahmed said it was time to wake up to see where she believed the decision could lead the country.
“If we believe we need to go back to the point in time where the constitution was drafted and written, we’re not just rolling back 50 years of rights, we’re rolling back almost every conceivable right,” Ahmed said.
But anti-abortion leaders claimed their work wasn’t over either.
“People need to realize that these are human beings,” Louisiana Right to Life Board Director Sharon Rodi said. “We are taking lives, we are taking childrens lives.”