Waving banners, posters and wooden crosses, more than 30 people joined forces in support of the recent push by Republican congressional leaders to strip Planned Parenthood of government funding.
Additionally, four women attended to counter-protest in favor of abortion access and lend support to women seeking medical services.
Robert Hart, the rector at St. Benedict’s Anglican Church in Chapel Hill, said he doesn’t approve of federal tax funding going to Planned Parenthood.
“If they want to do it and they’re going to take money out of my pocket by force to do that, then they are forcing me to participate in a grave injustice that I see as pure evil,” he said.
Planned Parenthood currently receives 43 percent of its revenue from government funding, according to its website. The majority of the funding goes to STD/STI testing and providing contraception. Abortions account for 3 percent of the services performed annually.
Paul Borer, a Clayton resident, said abortions are a terrible shame for the country.
“God’s going to ask us one day what we did, and I tell my wife some days, ‘Why didn’t I run into (Planned Parenthood) or stand on the corner in downtown and scream at the top of my lungs and tell everybody that we’re killing our kids?’” he said.
Grace Garner, a junior at UNC and president of UNC’s Students for Life, was one of several students protesting. She said the group has been to many protests and that the reactions can be varied.
