The march and others like it around the country take place in conjunction with the National Women’s March, first held in 2017 the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Susan Burack, co-organizer of the local march, said it’s a way for people to be involved in their own community.

“I can’t make a difference in D.C., but I can make a difference here,” she said.

Lindsey Heiden of Dollar Bay carried a sign saying “Bodily Autonomy.”

Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Demonstrators take part in the Copper Country Women’s March Saturday, which has been held since 2017.

“It’s somebody’s choice to do what they want to do with their own body,” she said. “It’s important to remind people that it’s still an issue. That right is being taken away and people are dying.”

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, the decision on abortion went back to the states. Michigan and several other states have codified abortion rights, while Kentucky voters rejected attempts to remove language permitting abortion from the state constitution.

“It’s clear we’re in the majority,” Burack said.

This year’s national march was held in Arizona, one of the states anticipated to have ballot items this year that would enshrine abortion access.

Heiden said coming to the march helps show solidarity.

Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Co-organizer Victoria Bergvall addresses Copper Country Women’s March participants prior to Saturday’s march across the Portage Lake Lift Bridge.

“Especially in rural areas, it’s really easy to feel alone,” she said. “When you have groups of people that think alike, it kind of energizes you and supports you, and it supports people that may be driving by that have these thoughts but are in a relationship or situation where they can’t express them.”

Co-organizer Victoria Bergvall outlined the reasons she chose to march. Abortion rights led the list. There are the women who have to cross state lines or the students she advises not to take jobs in certain states.

“I hate having to advise my younger women students not to take jobs in certain states for fear that their rights might be abridged,” she said in a speech delivered at Bridge View Park after the march.

But she also highlighted other issues: climate-change trends that last year produced the warmest year on record; the need for universal background checks and red-flag laws for handguns; a call for effective recycling programs and quality food, water and air.

“We all march today, each with our own causes that bring us here,” she said in her speech. “But we march, most of all, to let the people around us know that our voices matter and our votes matter.”

The protest, originally scheduled for 1 p.m., was moved up half an hour to avoid conflicting with an anti-abortion march put on by MTU’s Students for Life group.

This was the second year for that march. About 20 participants were approaching the bridge on Shelden Avenue as the Women’s March turned down the hill for an address at Bridge View Park. It is also a branch of the national March for Life, which launched on the second anniversary of Roe v. Wade in 1974.

Daniel Ryan, a member of the group, said the march was a way for students to demonstrate the real-life importance of the abortion issue, instead of a topic for political discussions on television.

It was also a way for them to highlight other options. The march began on campus and ended at the Life Outreach Center in Hancock, where students heard a presentation on the organization’s services. Those include ultrasounds and educational programs for new parents, where rewards can include diapers and gas cards.

“Because someone’s dependent on us and we don’t want that person to be dependent on us anymore, doesn’t mean that we can just end their life,” Ryan said. “That’s the main thing, is there are resources available for women that are struggling with crisis pregnancies that can’t support the child or don’t want to support the child.”