Anti-abortion activists and abortion-rights advocates staged a battle of signs Wednesday morning at the intersection of Ridge Avenue and Dempster Street to mark the start of a 10-day anti-abortion rally throughout Chicago and its surrounding suburbs.

As residents drove by voicing support for their preferred group, the activists from both camps intermingled along the street and spoke cordially during the hour-and-a-half they were out there.

“It’s (abortion-rights advocates’) right to come out and express their opinions,” said Monica Migliorino-Miller, director of Citizens for a Pro-life Society, which is co-sponsoring the rally. “I like to talk to them and give them something to think about.”

Although anti-abortion activists outnumbered their counterparts by a margin of about 5 to 1, passers-by showed heavy support for the abortion-rights advocates by honking and extending their thumbs while passing their signs, and extending other fingers when passing anti-abortion activists.

Signs reading “honk if you’re pro-choice” drew the most driver reaction throughout the morning.

“There’s too much honking,” said Bob Pinz, of Mount Prospect, Ill., who was holding a pro-life sign. “They’re lucky there hasn’t been an accident.”

One anti-abortion activist tried to level the playing field by flipping over her sign halfway through the rally, taking out a marker and scrawling “Honk if you’re pro-life” on the poster.

Weinberg sophomore Madhuri Kommareddi, who held her pro-abortion rights sign in one hand and an umbrella in another to protect her from light smatterings of rain, said she was proud that the Evanston chapter of the National Organization for Women had brought out so many abortion-rights advocates to the rally.

“We almost decided to just stay at home and not dignify this disgusting rally,” she said. “But then we decided we should be here to show everyone else that we can come out in full numbers, too.”

Kommareddi said she was surprised the anti-abortion groups started the rally in Evanston.

“(Evanston) is such a progressive town, many of the residents here are pro-choice,” she said.

Migliorino-Miller said Evanston’s liberal reputation was one of the reasons her group chose to rally in Evanston.

“If it’s such a progressive town, it ought to be able to accept all human beings, born or unborn,” she said. “We want to provoke Evanston residents toward a deeper appreciation for the sanctity of all human life.”

Migliorino-Miller and her fellow ralliers said they hope their graphic signs depicting images of aborted fetuses and a weeping Jesus Christ holding an aborted fetus will shock people into agreeing with their views. The signs showed a progression of unborn babies from eight weeks old to those in the third trimester of pregnancy.

“A 10-year-old boy came up to me and pointed to my sign and said, ‘That’s nasty,'” said Marie Smith, a Chicago resident who was holding a picture of a fetus aborted during its first trimester. “I told him, ‘That’s right, abortion is nasty.’

“We want to save the lives of those who don’t have voices to speak for themselves,” she said. “(Unborn babies) have only our voices and actions to speak for them.”

But Magy Bohlin, 14, of Wilmette, Ill., said women shouldn’t be forced to complete the childbirthing process if they don’t want to.

“If it’s her body, it’s her choice,” she said. “If it’s a mistake, like if a woman is raped, she shouldn’t have to have (the baby).”

The rally will continue through July 28, with a break on July 22 and 23 for “prayer and relaxation.”