VIDEO: Rochester protest against Roe v. Wade draft opinion

(ABC 6 News) – In Rochester Tuesday, a group gathered outside the Olmsted County Government Center to speak out against the Supreme Court draft opinion on Roe v. Wade that was leaked.

"We just have to stand up for women’s rights, reproductive rights, the rights of all people experiencing pregnancy," Rochester Township resident Ana Folpe said.

Protestors said that we are moving backward when we should be moving forward.

"I’m just tired of our rights being taken away," Lynn Seurer from Oronoco said. "Pregnancy puts a lot of toll on the body and it should be her choice."

A group of about six individuals gathered to voice their opinions.

"It’s really important that those of us women who, even if we’re beyond child-bearing years, we have a reason to do more than just march so I think a lot of us will run," Kindra Ramaker of Stewartville said.

"It’s important to get people to notice and to understand that it is important and it affects a lot of people," 14-year-old Zurich Hanson of Stewartville added.

Protestors said one of the biggest things is education and that we need more of it on the health care aspects of abortion.

"We can’t just say ‘Oh, everybody has to bear a child if they become pregnant.’ It’s not that simple," Folpe said.

Fulpe has volunteered with Planned Parenthood and was a recipient of care there.

As for places like Pro-Choice Minnesota, they say they were expecting this with the makeup of the Supreme Court. However, they were not expecting it to be this soon.

"We’re extremely worried because we thought we’d have three to four more weeks to talk to patients who have abortions scheduled, people who are hoping to schedule abortions," Maggie Myer, Executive Director of Pro-Choice Minnesota, said. "We’re feeling a lot of urgency to get folks ready to receive care."

The Guttmacher Institute currently predicts that Minnesota will see a 371 percent increase in patients looking for abortion services in Minnesota from out of state.

The upper midwest could go from having over 50 clinics across the region to just eight in Minnesota.

Meyer said that Minnesota will likely be the only state in the upper midwest that will continue to have legal action to abortion.

"It involves more than just women even though it is a very big women’s movement but everybody is affected and there’s a lot of people that you don’t see that are affected," Garlyn Brenthner of Rochester said.

Those who oppose abortion have a movement of their own. Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, one of the oldest and largest pro-life organizations in the state, said it also comes down to rights.

"The laws now having to catch up with where science has been for a long time, the unborn child is a human being and human beings have human rights," Executive Director Scott Fischbach said.

Folpe said this is a call to action and they are answering that call.

Abortion is still legal in the United States. This is a draft decision, it’s not final. Abortion would still stay legal in Minnesota because of a decision that our Supreme Court made in 1995 affirming that abortion is a state constitutional right.