State lawmakers met with some 130 pro-life activists Saturday, pleading for a groundswell of support to push bills that place restrictions on abortion through state and local government.

With the Freedom of Choice Act running through the federal level, which would allow for a fundamental right to abortion, a more localized effort is paramount for the group's cause.

“I think one thing that is important to remember, we in state legislature do not have the opportunity to overturn Roe v. Wade,” State Rep. Matt Bell from Avilla told the group crammed into a small auditorium on the campus of Concordia Theological Seminary on Saturday morning.

“That's not a power granted to us. That cannot be our goal. Our goal has to be to till the soil, to put restrictions on that incredibly harsh public policy in the United States, to protect vulnerable women, to protect families, to protect children.

“We need to put Indiana in a position so that when perhaps a generation from now we can see a day when Roe v. Wade is no longer the law of the land so that we can then move forward to a better and brighter day.”

Their efforts now include three abortion-restrictive bills working their way through the statehouse. The first, Senate Bill 3, says pharmacists may not be forced to dispense or sell a drug or medical device if it could be used to cause an abortion or suicide.

Senate Bill 146 would force abortion providers to better inform women about the details of abortion and issues related to it, such as fetal pain and a definition of when life begins.

Finally, Senate Bill 187 would force schools to make a fetal-development section part of the high school health curriculum.

In Allen County, Allen County Commissioner Nelson Peters laid out the details of a bill he hopes to have written into ordinance by mid-March that would call for all office-based invasive procedures to be performed only by medical personnel with admitting privileges in Allen County or an adjoining county.

Medical personnel from outside one of the counties would need backup from a hospital physician who has admitting privileges.

Though the current presidential administration has taken vast strides against what the pro-lifers work so hard to push for, it was apparent Saturday the group is not giving up.

The legislative forum asked all in attendance to write letters addressed to the White House and Sen. Evan Bayh, pleading for their cases to place restrictions on abortion and to halt the Freedom of Choice Act.

“No question. (The Freedom of Choice Act) would take everything you guys have been working for and throw it out the door,” said Derek Pillie, district director of the office of Rep. Mark Souder (R, 3rd District).