It’s no secret that anti-abortion activists have adopted some increasingly disturbing tactics in recent years. So disturbing, in fact, that the term “pro-life” is a misnomer. It’s more accurate to use a term picked up by some of my old friends on Daily Kos–“forced-birth.”
For instance, an abortion clinic in my hometown of Charlotte has been the target of some pretty scary tactics–stopping cars and tricking them into driving away from the clinic, blocking roads, and preaching at patients and workers with amplified speakers, among other things. Lately, they’ve put kids on the front lines of the protests. But this looks like pat-a-cake stuff compared to what forced-birthers in at least two, and possibly four, cities tried on Friday–rushing into the waiting rooms of abortion clinics.
On Friday morning, about 20 forced-birthers gathered outside Northland Family Planning in Sterling Heights, Michigan. That’s not unusual for this abortion clinic north of Detroit, or for any abortion clinic, for that matter. What was unusual, though, was that five of the protesters rushed into the clinic’s waiting room. According to the clinic’s advocacy director, Lara Chelian, one protester left when staffers warned that they were calling the police. The other four were arrested for trespassing.
Watch footage of the raid from Created Equal, a youth-oriented forced-birth group that took part in the protest.
According to HuffPost, a similar scene unfolded at Alexandria Women’s Health Clinic in Alexandria, Virginia. Created Equal and Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, which also took part in the raids, claim to have staged a similar protest at a clinic in Albuquerque. HuffPost also received reports of a similar raid in Columbus, Ohio. However, the latter two incidents have not been independently corroborated.
The forced-birthers were taking part in what they call a “red rose rescue,” following the example of Canadian forced-birther Mary Wagner. For much of the millennium, she has walked into abortion clinics armed with roses–representing life–and anti-abortion literature. She has racked up numerous arrests since 2000 and has spent the equivalent of five years in jail.
The forced-birthers in Michigan and Virginia walked into the waiting rooms carrying red roses and cards that read:
“You were made to love and to be loved. Your goodness is greater than the difficulties of your situation. Circumstances in life change. A new life, however tiny, brings the promise of unrepeatable joy.”
The cards also contained contact information for nearby crisis pregnancy centers.
One of the people arrested in Sterling Heights was Monica Migliorino Miller, a theology and religious studies professor at Madonna University in nearby Livonia. Hours after being bailed out, she took to YouTube to defend the invasions.
Miller claimed that the red rose rescues were “an act of charity” for women who were slated to end their pregnancies. As she saw it, they were acting in response to “dire circumstances of imminent peril.” Apparently those circumstances were so dire that if their offers of “encouragement and help” were turned down, Miller and friends felt compelled to stay there “in solidarity with the helpless victims, those who are oppressed by legalized abortion.”
Never mind that some of those women who were offered “encouragement and help” may have been victims of rape and incest. And never mind if the women don’t want to listen. But then again, we shouldn’t be surprised. After all, a number of their compatriots danced a jig when Hurricane Harvey knocked down a tree in Austin and cut off access to an abortion clinic. Indeed, some of them were openly hoping that the tree had fallen on the clinic itself.
Let’s put the shoe on the other foot, Monica. What if pro-choice activists showed up at one of those crisis pregnancy centers on those cards and tried to offer “encouragement and help” to any women who were there. Chances are that you would be among the first to call the police. Storming a crisis pregnancy center in this way, no matter how repugnant many of these outfits are, is wrong. What you and your friends did here is equally wrong.
To give you an idea of just how outrageous this is, consider that these “red rose rescues” came on top of what women typically have to endure just getting into the clinic. Earlier this spring, Planned Parenthood put together a virtual reality video that shows just how ugly things can get.
According to a number of clinic escorts, that video is actually much milder than what they actually see on a daily basis. Now they have to endure being hounded and harassed inside the clinic as well. And Miller essentially says that to women don’t want to listen, “Too bad, so sad.”
By adopting such ugly and nakedly aggressive tactics, and turning a deaf ear to women’s actual concerns, these “rescuers” have inadvertently revealed that their movement has nothing at all to do with the sanctity of life. It has everything to do with destroying the right to privacy through the back door.
(featured image courtesy Created Equal’s Facebook)
