Protesters abound at Legislature’s only session day in July

Several rallies at the state Capitol were timed to coincide with the Legislature’s only session day this month.

The largest was a group of about 150 abortion rights advocates protesting a package of bills before the state Senate.

The bills call for strict regulations on abortion providers.

One of the speakers was Renee Chelian. She works for a group of family planning clinics in metro Detroit. Chelian says protests have slowed down the bills after they cleared the state House last month.

“Keep the pressure on, and vote them out of office in the primary and in November. Show the country that we are the tipping point in the war on women!” she said.

Megan Groen is with Planned Parenthood.

“Getting all these women out here, getting everyone together, showing that people do actually care about legislation that impacts women’s lives, is really putting a different focus on it for the Legislature and saying maybe we need to slow down,” she said.

About 10 protesters also tried to disrupt the state House session by singing a song about vaginas from the gallery.

There were also demonstrations to support the right of women to breast feed infants in public, and to commemorate the second anniversary of the Enbridge Energy oil spill.