Pro-lifers received a lot of attention at the Women’s March on Washington on Saturday after abortion activists’ attempts to silence them backfired.
Some of the attention was good. Dozens of news outlets, including mainstream and liberal sites, began covering the pro-life perspective after march organizers kicked out several pro-life groups from its partner list.
The march drew an estimated half a million people to the capital on Saturday, supposedly to march for women’s rights and against some past sexist remarks that President Donald Trump made. However, a few days ago, it became clear that the march also had a strong pro-abortion agenda.
The crowd on Saturday included quite a few pro-lifers who refused to be silenced; and a number of media outlets covered their presence. New Wave Feminists, Life Matters Journal, Students for Life of America, Abby Johnson and other pro-lifers marched to speak up for women’s rights, including babies in the womb.
At one point, Students for Lifemade its message very visible by marching directly ahead of the women’s march with huge banners that read “Abortion Betrays Women.”
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We had 3 #prolife banners at THE FRONT of the #WomensMarch in Washington DC! See the LIVE video here: https://t.co/FQ07BQq62q #prolife pic.twitter.com/ugzFPTY8jm
— Students for Life (@Students4LifeHQ) January 21, 2017
Some of the attention was not so good.
The Christian Post reports one so-called woman’s rights advocate spat in the face of Students for Life Great Lakes Regional Coordinator Anna Allgaier.
“I was on the bullhorn and our group was chanting that abortion betrays women and that abortion is violence and we are anti-violence. One woman, who is in the march, broke through the chain of volunteers who were kind of protecting us from them and started yelling in my face,” Allgaier told the news outlet. “After I told her, I was a woman and this was a women’s march and I felt like we could be here, she spit in my face and it got all over my face and all over my jacket.”
Reagan Barklage, western regional director, captured a video of other marchers tearing up their pro-life signs. Another abortion activist told them, “I hope you get raped and have to have an abortion.”
President Kristan Hawkins related another tragic experience to LifeNews: “… I’ve had a mother come up to yell at us for wearing our ‘Defund Planned Parenthood’ shirts and tell me that she thought about aborting her daughter and it wouldn’t have killed her…it would have simply been an abortion. She did this while her young daughter stood and watched.”
Others were more welcoming. Herndon-De La Rosa of New Wave Feminists said most people were friendlier than expected, and Kristina Hernandez, communications director for Students for Life, told Vox a group of women who marched in support of abortion told her, “We still love you!”
Here’s more from The Daily Beast:
Herndon-De La Rosa, [Abby] Johnson, and others had come to the March with low expectations about civility, knowing their “feminists for life” signs would give them away.
For Johnson, the lowest point was a hostile encounter with two people when she and a few friends briefly met up with Students For Life on a sidewalk off the marching path. She was pushed and called a few names, she said, but for the most part people were either quiet or supportive–“not of our cause but that we were there. And I was thankful that we were there because we had so many good conversations,” she said of her and a few pro-life friends, speaking from her hotel afterwards.
“And I think there’s more diversity of thought here than the Women’s March would like there to be,” Johnson told The Blaze. “We have had people come up who were supportive.”
The march began making national news last week after it welcomed and then kicked out the pro-life women’s group New Wave Feminists. Not long after abortion activists learned about the partnership, they began demanding that the march dis-invite the pro-life group. March organizers soon caved to abortion activists’ demands.
The Atlantic reported more about the situation:
A pro-life group based in Texas, New Wave Feminists, was granted partnership status on Friday. “Intersectional feminism is the future of feminism and of this movement,” said Bob Bland, one of the event’s co-chairs. “We must not just talk about feminism as one issue, like access to reproductive care.” (On Monday afternoon, after the publication of this article, the Women’s March organizers removed the New Wave Feminists from their website and list of partners. “The Women’s March’s platform is pro-choice and that has been our stance from day one,” the organizers said in a statement. “The anti-choice organization in question is not a partner of the Women’s March on Washington. We apologize for this error.”)
After throwing out New Wave Feminists, the march also tossed out Stanton Healthcare, a life-affirming health care provider, and And Then There Were None, an outreach to abortion clinic workers. Students for Life leaders said they also submitted paperwork to participate in the march but never heard back.
At the same time, the march elevated the abortion business Planned Parenthood, to a “premier partner.”
GREAT. Juuuuuussst great.
Planned Parenthood is now a *premier partner* for the Women’s March. pic.twitter.com/ACpd2yHTun
— Katie Yoder (@k_yoder) January 18, 2017
Some of the most wealthy and influential pro-abortion groups in the U.S. backed the march, including Planned Parenthood and NARAL. Planned Parenthood’s highly paid CEO Cecile Richards also spoke during the event.
