Videos Show Abortion Activists Kicking, Shoving and Harassing Peaceful Pro-Lifers

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Sep 19, 2019   |   12:30PM   |   Washington, DC

A series of videos shared with LifeNews.com this week show abortion activists appearing to push, kick, mock and intimidate pro-life sidewalk counselors outside an abortion facility in Bristol, Tennessee.

The videos are yet more evidence of increasing harassment, intimidation and other incidents targeting those dedicated to protecting unborn babies and mothers from abortion.

Sammi Cooper, who runs the ministry A Cause for Christ, said pro-abortion protesters have become very aggressive toward her and others who stand regularly outside the Bristol Regional Women’s Center, hoping to help women and unborn babies in need.

In a video that Cooper shared dated Aug. 17, a pro-abortion escort can be seen approaching one of the sidewalk counselors and then leaning directly against the sign that she is holding.

“Stop pushing on my sign,” the sidewalk counselor says.

“Call the cops! Call the cops,” the pro-abortion escort taunts. “You know what they’ll do? Nothing.”

The video shows the escort continuing to stand up against the sign, and at one point pushing it into the woman. The woman asks the activist repeatedly to move away and stop pushing her, but the escort refuses.

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At two separate points, the woman attempts to walk away, but the pro-abortion escort follows her closely and then begins pushing against the sign again. Later, the pro-abortion escort appears to shove and kick the sign while the woman holds it.

“Stop kicking my sign!” the woman says.

The pro-abortion escort smiles mockingly and replies: “What are you going to do about it? You can’t do anything about it.”

WARNING: Video contains very graphic image at beginning.

Erika Schanzenbach, who has been involved in Christian outreach at the abortion facility for more than six years, said they have seen increasingly nasty behavior from the pro-abortion protesters in the past few months. Still, she said she will not stop going there for the sake of the innocent unborn babies, their mothers and fathers.

“My hope is that God will be glorified as we work to bring the light of His truth to that very dark place,” Schanzenbach said. “These little ones are my most helpless neighbors, so I go to stand and speak for them.”

A second video dated Sept. 11 shows another pro-abortion escort waving a sign in the face of a pro-life advocate outside the abortion facility. The escort ignores the woman’s repeated requests to move the sign out of her face and, at one point, appears to be pushing up against the woman’s sign as she is holding it.

WARNING: Video contains very graphic image at beginning.

A third video dated Aug. 28 shows a pro-abortion protester, possibly the same one from the first video, approaching a female sidewalk counselor and pushing up against her sign as she holds it. The woman asks the protester to stop touching her and to back away, but the protester ignores her and continues to press up against the woman and her sign.

The protester then mocks the woman after admitting to touching her: “I touched your sign. I didn’t touch you. Is that going to hold up in court? She touched my sign, judge! She touched my sign!”

“You’re physically shoving my body,” the woman replies.

“Well, take me to court,” the protester yells in the woman’s face.

“Don’t spit on me,” the woman responds as the escort continues to yell.

After the woman calls the police, the pro-abortion protester tells her the police will not do anything. “Have they ever done anything about it? No … and the cops aren’t going to tell me to back off either. There’s no personal space law.”

WARNING: Video contains very graphic image at beginning.

Cooper and Schanzenbach both said these situations have become increasingly common, and the local police have not stopped it. They said they have been cursed at, spit upon, pushed and followed to their vehicles by the pro-abortion activists.

“This is how clinic escorts at Bristol Regional Women’s Center treat women they disagree with AND how hard they work to keep people from seeing images of the victims of what they are standing for,” Mission to Restore America states in a description of the first video.

LifeNews has documented an alarming uptick in reports of vandalism, harassment, threats and other incidents targeting pro-lifers. In the spring, a Pennsylvania state representative was caught publicly offering money for the identities of three young teenage girls who were peacefully praying outside an abortion facility in Philadelphia. In another case, video footage caught a man, allegedly a Google employee, repeatedly punching a pro-life advocate in Washington, D.C. And another man recently was charged with threatening to slit the throat of a pro-life female politician in Australia.

Earlier this year, Students for Life reported more than 50 pro-life student displays were vandalized in the past school year, including a pro-life banner that was set on fire inside a student building in Washington state.

Pro-life pregnancy resource centers and billboards also have been the targets of vandals. Austin LifeCare in Texas was vandalized twice this year. Two pregnancy centers’ mobile vans also were vandalized in Chicago and North Carolina this summer. In February, another pro-life pregnancy center was vandalize in Virginia in the midst of a heated political debate about a pro-abortion bill. And in May, someone spray-painted pro-abortion graffiti on a Catholic church in Philadelphia.

Here is the complete list: