MORE THAN 200 PRO-LIFE SUPPORTERS DEMONSTRATE; PROTESTS OCCUR IN CAPE AND FVE OTHER CITIES ACROSS STATE

More than 200 pro-life supporters Sunday, carrying signs saying, "Abortion kills children," lined a section of Broadway as part of a nationwide anti-abortion effort.

Cape Girardeau was one of six Missouri cities where demonstrations were held Sunday involving thousands of Missourians.

The protests ranged from a circle around the Poplar Bluff courthouse to a 25-mile chain of people snaking through St. Louis and surrounding counties.

The demonstrations were part of a national day of protest in which people stood side-by-side for an hour in what they called "life chains."

Organizers in St. Louis estimated that 18,000 to 20,000 people carrying anti-abortion signs stood along the 25-mile route stretching through sections of St. Louis and parts of St. Charles and St. Louis counties. More than 400 churches took part in the St. Louis demonstration.

Other demonstrations drew 2,700 people in Springfield, 1,700 in St. Joseph, 80 to 150 in Poplar Bluff and about 700 in Rolla, police and organizers said.

No demonstration took place in Kansas City on Sunday, but the Missouri Right to Life group counted among the weekend activities a march that drew between 2,000 and 3,000 people Saturday outside a women's clinic in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, Kan.

The Cape Girardeau demonstration lasted from 2 to 3 p.m., with members of the Southeast Missouri region of the Missouri Right to Life group and other pro-life supporters, including children, lining Broadway along a five-block stretch from just west of West End Blvd. at Capaha Park to west of Caruthers Avenue.

Marjie Eftink of Marble Hill, president of the Southeast Missouri region of Missouri Right to Life, said she was pleased by the turnout.

"I feel great about it. It's wonderful," she said as she stood along Broadway displaying an anti-abortion sign.

She said Sunday's event was the largest anti-abortion demonstration in Cape Girardeau in a number of years.

"Of course," she added, "you always would like thousands" to participate.

A number of motorists honked their car horns or gave a thumbs-up sign as they passed by the line of pro-life supporters standing on the sidewalk.

Eftink said people from many Southeast Missouri communities joined in Sunday's demonstration.

"We're winning," Eftink said of the fight against abortion.

She said the anti-abortion demonstrations at an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kan., this year, where thousands of demonstrators have been arrested, have helped spark the pro-life movement.

For Bruce Nall of Cape Girardeau, the demonstration here was a family affair. His sons, David, 10, and John, 13, and his daughter, Alison, 15, joined in the demonstration.

Nall said he and his son, John, participated in some of the large anti-abortion demonstrations in Wichita this summer.

Some people have criticized anti-abortion activists for involving young children in such protests.

But Nall said his children "are old enough to think and if you asked any of them if they wanted to be killed, they would say, `no.'"

Nall said he believes the pro-life movement is winning the battle against abortion. He compared the abortion issue to the fight against slavery.

He noted that slavery was at one time legal in the United States and slaves were treated as property.

"There was nothing just about that and that was the law at the time," said Nall. "The right to kill children is no more just than the right to own slaves."

Babies, he said, have a right to live and are not the property of the mother.

"This (abortion) is a very big issue just as slavery was a big issue in the mid-1800s," he said.

The sanctity of human life, he said, stands above all other issues.

Nall said it's ironic that thousands of dollars can be spent on medical efforts to save one baby, while at the same time in this nation a woman is undergoing an abortion.

"In most courts, when you take a life, it's murder," said Nall.

He said he believes a majority of citizens are opposed to abortion. "No person," he said, "who says they are pro-choice would want to trade places with the unborn child" who is aborted.

Bernice Buehrle of Cape Girardeau, who is treasurer of the Right to Life group in the Southeast Missouri region, said those who demonstrate against abortions are often criticized by those who favor abortion rights.

But she said the criticism doesn't bother her. "We know we are going to win because God is on our side," she said.

Silas Hull of Dexter, who joined in the demonstration, said that since the U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1973 legalizing abortions, "25 million babies have been killed. More than 4,000 unborn babies are "killed" each month, he said.

Hull said he believes the pro-life movement is growing. "I think more people are opening their eyes to the fact that life begins at conception."

Hull and other right-to-life supporters at Sunday's demonstration said they believe Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas opposes abortion, and they are hopeful that the high court will overturn the Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion.

Beth Scott of Piedmont welcomed Sunday's demonstration. She said the turnout demonstrated the growth of the anti-abortion movement.

When asked what had caused her to join the demonstration, she replied, "him," as she patted the head of her 6-week-old son, Ethan Daniel Scott, who was wrapped in a blanket and cradled in her arms.

Bill Killian of Fredericktown said abortion is wrong. "If people want a choice, they can avoid getting pregnant in the first place."

He said, "It's not right to stand by and watch babies being killed."