DENVER — With the mid-term elections one month away, the debate over abortion rights has intensified, evident by the hundreds of people who showed up Saturday for the Womxn's March Denver.
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in June, striking down Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to an abortion, left Colorado women like Jade Marquez with a sense of despair.
"Honestly, I sobbed," said Marquez. "I had to take like a half a day off of work. I had a very hard grieving period.”
Marquez turned that grief into action, helping to organize the Women's March in Civic Center Park, the first one held since the pandemic.
"There was a two-year hiatus. We decided for the safety of our community that we weren't going to march during COVID. We felt like especially with everything that's going on, it was time to get the community back together and have an organized march," said Marquez.
She hopes the energy and passion on display at the march will last through the mid-term election.
"The goal of the Womxn's March is to fully engage in your democracy," said Marquez. "Figure out how you feel about the issues, talk about the candidates and start thinking about how you are going to vote this year."
People attending the march, like Linda Wolf, said they're worried for younger women.
Wolfe said she was worried for her granddaughter.
"It's unbelievable that we're going backward and we have to protest this again," Wolfe said.
But not everyone agrees overturning Roe v. Wade was a bad thing.
"The overturning of Roe was actually a super exciting thing for the nation," said Brooke Faulkner, the Rocky Mountain regional coordinator for Students for Life of America, a pro-life advocacy organization. "I believe that it's the right of the people to be able to vote on their abortion rules from state to state."
Faulkner and a small number of other members with Students for Life showed up after the Women's March.
Faulkner said they too stand for women's rights -- up to a point.
"I mean, as a woman I totally recognize the fear that women's rights might be stripped away. However, my rights end when I start to hurt another person," said Faulkner.
Before the march, the crowd gathered for a rally featuring prominent Democratic and progressive women, including Colorado Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera, Congresswoman Diana DeGette, and Secretary of State Jena Griswold.