Abortion rights rallies set as Evansville's Right to Life dinner welcomes Tim Tebow

EVANSVILLE — It doesn't sound like an invitation to tea.

"THEY ARRIVE AT 5PM AND LEAVE AT 9PM, THATS TWO CHANCES TO CATCH THEM OUTSIDE!" states a Facebook page urging people to "rally up!" to protest Thursday's Right to Life of Southwest Indiana annual banquet at Old National Events Plaza.

"BRING YOUR GRIT, NOISE MAKERS, AND MAKE THEIR WALK FROM PARKING LOT A WALK OF SHAME (LIKE THEY DO OUTSIDE PLANNED PARENTHOOD)," states the post by Woe vs. Rage Pt2.

Someplace Else nightclub in Downtown Evansville is a "friendly landing spot" for protest participants to gather, according to Woe vs. Rage Pt2's post.

More: Evansville anti-abortion banquet: 'Your baby has 10 fingers and 10 toes'

The protest is also a fundraiser for the Midwest Access Coalition, an organization which helps people traveling in the Midwest for abortions. There will be buttons, shirts and zines available to boost donations, the event post states.

Indivisible Evansville, a local progressive organization, also plans an event to coincide with the Right to Life banquet — a "rally for abortion rights" at 6 p.m. at Four Freedoms Monument.

If the past is any guide, the Right to Life banquet likely will dwarf attendance at both protest events combined.

Right to Life of Southwest Indiana says it has sold enough tickets to sell out. The expected crowd count is 2,500 people — including at least 130 volunteers — for the dinner featuring keynote speaker Tim Tebow, a former college football star and NFL quarterback.

Evansville Police Chief Phil Smith said officers will be outside the banquet to make sure no protesters or dinner attendees get out of hand as the latter group enters and exits the event while the former watches.

"If I could promise that I could make sure that nothing would happen, I would make sure that no crime ever happened in Evansville," Smith said. "I can’t promise what someone will or won’t do, but I can promise that we’ll have a presence there. Our goal is to make sure that everybody is participating, whether they be a protestor or a participant in the Right to Life activities.

"We want everybody to be safe. That’s what our primary objective is."

Smith hadn't heard about Woe vs. Rage Pt2's protest before the Courier & Press called him, and neither had Right to Life Executive Director Jeff Ferguson.

"We’re a Christian organization, so (we) respond to anybody in accordance to the Biblical worldview," stated Ferguson, who was a pastor before Right to Life named him in July to succeed longtime RTL director Mary Allen Van Dyke.

More: Right to Life of Southwest Indiana selects local pastor as new director

Ferguson noted that Right to Life will have its own security at Thursday's banquet, which does begin at 5 p.m.

"We’re there for the reason, to celebrate life," he said. "We’re going to stay on mission, stay focused. We don’t retaliate. We just are there to celebrate life. Let’s not get distracted by those who may want to cause a distraction."

Last year's Right to Life banquet did not attract the level of abortion rights protests that marked the previous year's event, held two months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark legal decision that had established a federally protected right to abortion since 1973.

That year, more than 50 protesters stood outside of Old National Events Plaza in support of abortion rights. The majority of the group had traveled down the block from Someplace Else as a part of the "Woe vs. Rage; We’ll CEED You in Hell" event planned by local group Collective Efforts for Equity and Diversity.

Banquet comes against backdrop of recent action

Thursday's banquet and counterprotests will come one day after an Indiana Circuit Court shut down a legal effort by abortion care providers and supporters to expand state abortion ban exemptions in an effort to allow more women to get abortion care for health-related reasons.

Planned Parenthood and other providers sought to clarify and broaden the state's abortion exemption to save the life of the mother. They argued that chronic health conditions and serious mental health problems can put the life of the mother at risk during pregnancy.

More: Indiana Circuit Court rules against abortion providers seeking to expand exemptions

The abortion ban has caused some confusion and fear among doctors who are sometimes unsure of when to intervene during a complicated pregnancy or miscarriage to save the life of the mother.

In the ruling published Wednesday, the judge overseeing the case stated the exemption that allows abortion to save the life of the mother already covers many of the medical situations that abortion providers laid out in their argument.

But Judge Kelsey Blake Hanlon acknowledged that doctors are "in the incredibly unenviable position of providing exigent obstetrical care in a politically charged environment and under a new statutory regime that includes potential criminal liability and license revocation.”

RTL banquet has attracted even bigger crowds

Thursday's annual spring banquet — Right to Life of Southwest Indiana calls it the largest "pro-life" dinner in America — is an event with a history.

The dinner drew more than 3,000 people when 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin and conservative author and commentator Candace Owens spoke in 2009 and 2021, respectively.

In April 2009, Palin, then Alaska's governor, chose the event to make her first major public appearance outside her state since her unsuccessful 2008 vice-presidential campaign. Palin was, at the time, one of the nation's hottest political properties.

The banquet also is Right to Life's primary fundraising event. A table for 10 cost $690 this year, and individual tickets could be purchased for $69 each.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Abortion rights rallies, Evansville's Right to Life banquet set for tonight