YAKIMA, Wash. -- Supporters of health-care reform and their opponents took their separate messages to downtown Yakima Monday.

Supporters held a rally at Millennium Plaza and then delivered about 1,500 signatures to the office of Rep. Doc Hastings, urging the Pasco Republican to back legislation to make health care affordable to everyone.

At Millennium Plaza they waved signs such as "Public Option Can't Wait" and "Health not War."

A block away, people holding the opposite viewpoint gathered at the park on Second Street and Yakima Avenue. They waved signs saying, "Obama Scare Plan."

It was the first downtown rally in support of reform. Opponents of health-care reform have held several rallies in downtown Yakima since Congress broke for its August recess.

The pro-reform rally drew about 55 people, many of them longtime activists in the Democratic Party. An organizer with the opponents estimated his group at about 80.

Among those supporting health-care reform was retired Catholic priest Ronald Patnode, who said he attended because health care is a moral issue. "We consider it a human issue," he said.