The groups that gathered Saturday afternoon in downtown Chattanooga were separated by barely more than a mile geographically, but couldn't have been further apart ideologically.
At Renaissance Park, a Rally for Abortion Justice sponsored by the Women's March and Planned Parenthood's "Bans Off Our Bodies" were combined into a single event that included a march. Across the Tennessee River, at about the same time, the Greater Chattanooga Chapter of Right to Life conducted a call to prayer on the steps of the Hamilton County Courthouse.
Similar, opposing events took place in cities around the nation Saturday.
Centel Alvarado said she came to the Hamilton County Courthouse to pray, but admitted that she was also thinking of her sister, who was attending a Planned Parenthood event in Austin, Texas.
"We're respectful of each other's decisions and beliefs," said Alvarado, who added that she's a member of the area Right to Life chapter. "She's as passionate on her side as I am on mine.
"I know her heart is for the woman, but someone has to advocate for that little child, because that child matters," Alvarado said.
A new Texas law, which bans abortions about six weeks into pregnancy - a time before which many people don't realize they're pregnant - was a topic of conversation at both sites. At Renaissance Park, Penny Morrison said the Texas law should be a wake-up call.
(READ MORE: EXPLAINER: What to know about the new Texas abortion law)
"Roe [v. Wade] is under threat," she said, adding she drove from her Alabama home to join her daughter-in-law, Lacey Lapham, at the event.
"If we don't stand up and fight it, we could start losing our rights. Abortion is not just getting rid of an unwanted pregnancy. We need to make sure we keep it legal, so it's safe," she said.
Lapham, a Lookout Valley resident, said lawmakers "shouldn't be making bans on women's bodies."
"It's time for us to stand up for what we believe in," she said, "and not just wait for it to slowly change, like we think it won't happen in America.
"We're here to make sure Tennessee knows that we're here to fight, and we're not going to let them take our rights from us easily - or at all," Lapham said.
(READ MORE: Appeals court blocks Tennessee Down syndrome abortion ban)
Candy Clepper, president of Greater Chattanooga Right to Life, said she's among those who "hope and pray that Roe v. Wade will be overturned." In addition to the new Texas law, she cited a Mississippi law banning most abortions after 15 weeks. The legal battle regarding the latter statute is set to be settled by the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 1.
"[Overturning Roe] would give the right to limit and ban abortions back to the states, where it belongs," said Clepper, who added that, given the opportunity, she would have told those gathered at Renaissance Park that "the abortion industry is lying to you."
"That's a human life, not a clump of cells," she said. "Women are not designed to kill their own children."
Kamari Sherard, Planned Parenthood's community organizer in Chattanooga since March, said abortion "is health care, plain and simple."
"It needs to be funded and accessible for everyone," she said. "We want to secure the right to abortion access and the right to make our own decisions involving our pregnancies."
Todd O'Dell of Lookout Valley echoed Sherard, saying he doesn't believe in abortion "as a form of birth control," but women "should have the right to choose what to do with their bodies."
"I've marched for years for human rights, gay rights and gay marriage," he said, "and I'll fight [any] day for women to have the right to choose."
But to Greg Samuel of Harrison, who arrived early for the courthouse event, abortion is a black-and-white question.
"If you believe that life begins at conception - and I do - then if you take that life, that's murder. And murder is murder. That's it. That's the bottom line," he said.
(READ MORE: Biden administration urges judge to block Texas abortion law)