More than 1,000 people paraded down Gervais Street to the state Capitol Saturday morning carrying signs that read “I regret my abortion” and “Making it legal didn’t make it right.”

They gathered “to promote the dignity and worth of human life from conception to God-ordained death,” according to organizer Holly Gatling of South Carolina Citizens for Life. The rally, which typically has focused on the anti-abortion movement in the 33 years since the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, shifted this year.

Suzanne Vitadamo, sister of Terri Schiavo, spoke about the right of all people to live. Schiavo died of dehydration last March after a judge gave her husband, Michael, an order saying that a feeding tube keeping her alive since she collapsed of unknown causes in 1990 could be removed.

“Terri did not want to die,” Vitadamo told the crowd. “Terri was not terminal. She actually was a healthy, 41-year-old woman.”

Vitadamo, along with her parents and brother, have started a foundation to educate people about what happened to her sister.

“We don’t starve dogs in this country. It’s illegal,” she said. “Our goal is that this never happens to another human being.”

Vitadamo said she was not surprised by a Supreme Court decision last week upholding Oregon’s physician-assisted suicide law for terminally ill patients.

“We know we have our work cut out for us,” she said. “We’re prepared to fight.”

She did not have to convince people like Shelley Lindell, who traveled from Aiken to attend the rally. Lindell has five biological children and five adopted disabled children.

“This world would be a lot worse off without my five (adopted) children,” she said. “I believe that’s true with all that we let go. God has a plan even for the most profoundly retarded person, the most profoundly disabled person.”

Lisa Van Riper, president of South Carolina Citizens for Life, said that since abortion was legalized in 1973, “we knew we’d have to do this battle.”

“You all stand with us today recognizing that we’re at the bottom of the slippery slope,” she said, before taking up a collection to raise money for the $100,000-a-year organization.

Chris Clark said his “motorcycle ministry” group traveled from Anderson as a show of force to “let the rest of the world see that it does matter to people.”

“Life is precious no matter who it is, whether it’s an unborn baby or somebody that’s 90 years old,” he said. “Life is precious to God.”

Reach Rupon at (803) 771-8622 or krupon@thestate.com.