June 16, 2015 12:14 pm • Journal Times staff

RACINE — A Milwaukee-based religious group brought pro-life protests to high traffic intersections in Racine, attempting to move state legislators to go against federal abortion laws.

Missionaries to the Preborn, a pro-life group, brought their protests to Racine in a tour of southeast Wisconsin to compare an escaped slave’s story to their call to action for state legislators.

About 40 people, mostly from the Milwaukee area, held large posters depicting aborted fetuses on the corner of State and Marquette streets, and then marched to make speeches at Racine City Hall, 730 Washington Ave.

The organization wants Wisconsin’s legislators and Supreme Court to defy the federal government’s decision as it did in 1859 with the federal Fugitive Slave Act, said Matthew Trewhella, founder of the group and a pastor at Mercy Seat Christian Church in Milwaukee.