How the Right is Coming for Abortion Pills Next

Let's get into it. In May of twenty twenty two, Politico first reported on the historic league from the Supreme Court about the overturning of Row versus Wade, the landmark nineteen seventy three decision which ruled under the Fourteenth Amendment, that a pregnant person has the right to privacy, including

the liberty to abort their fetus. In June of twenty twenty two, the Dabb's Decisions struck down Row, ruling that the Constitution does not guarantee a person the right to an abortion, triggering a wave of state governments rolling abortion rights and access for many. However, the fall of Row only further cemented a lack of access to reproductive healthcare

has already been the norm for millions. As the Hill wrote, quote, as of twenty twenty, six states had only one abortion clinic each in eighty nine percent of America's counties had no abortion clinic at all, the cumulative effect of decades of restrictions authored by anti abortion lawmakers. This is not to say that things haven't gotten worse. They have in

the months following the dabb's decision. In states like Ohio, where access has been attacked, A rape survivor was forced to travel out of state to find an abortion, while local politicians, including the state's Republican attorney general, claimed on Fox News that the story was totally fabricated. In other instances, people in Ohio have been denied care even though they

faced potentially life threatening complications. In Texas, one woman nearly died due to sepsis because she was initially barred access to an abortion by doctors. And these are only some of the stories that have made headlines. The deeper impact on this countrywide attack and reproductive health has hit low

income and communities of color the hardest. A recent study from the University of San Francisco found that quote a third of American women of reproductive age now face excessive travel times to obtain an abortion, while twice as many are being forced to travel more than an hour to

reach an abortion provider. In short, attacks on abortion, coupled with the already exploding wealth gap, lack of access to healthcare, the rising cost of living, and the continuing COVID nineteen pandemic, will only expand existing equalities, especially for people of color, the disabled, and queer and trans folks. In particular, on the legal front, some states have pushed to expand abortion access,

and many are challenging legal attacks in the courtroom. Minnesota, for instance, most recently became the first state to enshrine abortion as a right. Meanwhile, many continued to donate to abortion funds and nonprofits like Planned Parenthood, or even launching mobile clinics to provide care and areas hit the hardest

due to recent bands. But as our first two guests, Beck's part of a clinic defense group in New York City, in ashe an abortion doula in North Carolina, reported, many autonomous organizers aren't putting their faith in the courts, the cops, or the state. You know. Living in New York City, abortion is legal, and it is legal before a row, and it's been legal after row, but that doesn't really

necessarily mean anything kind of is what we've seen. So one of the things that we've seen is we've seen on anti abortion protesters and activists coming up from red states to target blue states now and so we've definitely seen their presence increasing outside of the clinic that we defend and soho in Manhattan. And so that's I would say, is one of the biggest things that we've seen is that they really are targeting Blue states, are targeting New

York City. There I'm actively trying to recruit people to come to New York City, is I think the biggest thing that we've seen. And then also in New York City, we've been struggling a lot with a really esculatory police presence. I don't our clinice. So that's the other thing that we're definitely really really struggling with is the response of the state after Doubs. So the first thing that I want folks to know is that people abortion haers, people

who might have abortions. Where I am in time and space, they have always already been navigating some of these post rorealities that a lot of folks are just getting hipped to like after that fateful Friday in June last year. And so I want to name here that we've always had a seventy two hour waiting period in North Carolina, which is one of the longest waiting periods in the country. And there's a slew of other things that we find

both hostile and restrictive. And I'm using those words to describe a situation, an ongoing situation, because these are the words that are being used to describe North Carolina now as we're seeing an influx of folks coming to North Carolina. So I'm saying that for the folks who live here always already like they've been dealing with a restrictive, hostile climate. Becks just shared a little bit about like the presence of anti abortion protesters, so we've always been dealing with that.

In twenty eighteen, the abortion clinic that I had two abortions at in my life, they saw the most anti abortion protesters in the Southeast, and we continue to see this. We also continue to see as we see these anti abortion protesters right a police presence, and we know or I'm concerned about what that means for black folks having abortions, for people who are undocumented and for people who otherwise like don't want the police all up in their business.

In addition to what's changed since jobs are not change, right, but change, we have semen influx of folks coming to North Carolina from states where abortion is illegal or there are bands kind of early ingestation, and we're seeing those folks come to the clinics and access the services and the support networks that we have here in North Carolina.

I think that one thing with the group that I work with called ed VIC for Abortion Rights, one thing that we've been working really hard on is not only talking about abortion, not only talking about you know, going beyond just legalizing it, but also really focusing on like our communities and building mutual aid networks, building repro justice networks, and also just working overall on like community defense. So we work with a lot of mutual aid organizations all

over the city of New York. And that's one thing that we're doing, like Ash was saying, is we're focusing on, you know, how do these people who are outside of our clinics are not only anti abortion, but they're also anti LGBTQ. They are fascist. That is something that we should be saying they are also pro police. None. None of these things happen inside of a vacuum. They're all interconnected.

And I think that that's one thing that we really really have to do is talk about how the issue of abortion bridge is out to so many other things, and we can't only fight one issue. We have to fight all of them. But we also have to fight the root of where these things are coming from. And they're coming from this mass conservative movement that's been being built since the nineteen seventies, you know, groups like Focus

on the Family, like the ETI Federalists. These groups have so much influence in our society, and we need to be going after all of it. We can't only be going after you know, one tiny, you know, sector of the massive problem, because like Ash said, it is all interconnected. Here, I'm thinking about like some political education that needs to happen, like and that is the framework and the theories of reproductive Justice. I know that they recognize so many it

recognizes so many things. But one of the things that grounds me that it recognizes that r J recognizes is that dismantling white supremacy is key to achieving reproductive justice. It also says it posits that we live interconnected lives and not single issue lives. And it also for me, this yields that, like we can't rely on the state

to provide what we need. I'm seeing abortion doulas, clinic escorts, abortion funds, and other organizers and organizations really come together to support people having abortions and resist criminalization and state violence right now, and we need to see more of that. You know, you talk about pro choice. I think it's so whack, like the logics of pro choice. We need to go further beyond the logics of pro choice and understand that RJ says that there is no choice without access.

And furthermore, RJ posits that the key to controlling entire communities is to controlling bodies. So if they're coming for the trans people on their HRT and their access to gender affirming and medical care, then they're gonna come for everyone else. Then they're gonna come for the abortion avers. They've been coming for the poor people. I think that, like again, when we go back to that reproductive justice framework,

we can begin to like make these connections. And I'm also saying this as an organizer, like reproductive justice is my lane, but so as like environmental justice and so as racial justice. And I'm on the front lines of different movements, and I go back to this this framework because it acknowledges that, like black people need an in too, anti black racism, and we need an end to the

police and clean fucking water right now. I don't know of a framework that says that, like we ought to demand all of those things right fucking now, and that we actually can't live self determined lives without all of that shit. And so I'm ready to talk about RJ,

like I'm ready to do that political education. I think it's ongoing work, and right like, you don't have to be an abortion dou lah or a frontline organizer to help someone get to their appointment, to fund an abortion, to affirm someone's decision and support their decision to have an abortion. And so we really need that, like we need that vibe right now. We need people to show up that way. I think that my biggest frustration with Democrats is they've been telling us for years, like, oh,

you know, vote for us, vote for us. They've been fundraising off of the issue of abortion for decades now. They have done absolutely nothing, And I think that what they've really done, is they've really made us, made us as in the general like American populists feel as though voting is the only way that we can change things, and that voting is the only way that we can like show our impact and like help our communities, when in reality, it isn't. It's going out onto the streets.

It's also you know, doing abortion do the work. It's also you know, going out defunding clinics. It's doing all of this work. And we don't need the Democrats to do that. And what we need to be doing is we need to be talking about the state and how we can go beyond the state. I also want to

say here, like fuck Row. Like Row is the kind of legal infrastructure that made abortion possible, but it also made it possible for like both the Democrats, the Republicans, the Christian Evangelicals, anyone who was checking for it to take abortion away. So like fuck Row. It also gave us the trimester framework, which is like really whack. And it also kind of made it more possible for the states and the federal government to put in bands and

restrictions on abortion. That's something that we need to get clear about as well. As we fight to decriminalize and not legislate further abortion. Stay with us, it could happen here. We'll return after these words from our sponsors. On July twenty seventh, nineteen ninety six, Eric Rudoff said off a nail bomb during the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. The explosion killed one person immediately. All over one hundred more

were horrifically injured. In the communicate, claiming responsibility for the bombing, Rudoff denounced the Olympics, abortion and LGBTQ rights with talking points that seemed ripped right out of Tucker Carlson's nightly news headlines. He wrote, the world converged upon Atlanta to celebrate the ideals of global socialism. The purpose of my

attack the Washington government sanctioning of abortion on demand. Along with abortion, another assault upon the integrity of American society is the considered effort to legitimize the practice of homosexuality, whether it's gay marriage, homosexual adoption, hate crime laws including gays, or the attempt to introduce a homosexual normalizing curriculum into our schools. All of these efforts should be ruthlessly opposed.

The existence of our culture depends on it. Rudolph would go on to carry out more deadly attacks against abortion clinics in a queer nightclub, releasing communications under the banner of the Army of God, a group which endorsed leaderless resistance and was linked to the white supremaci Christian Identity movement and the murder of multiple abortion providers. The Army of God was just one formation that grew out of

Christian Identity, a mix of white supremacy and Christianity. The priests that Jews were Satanic and people of color were subhuman and needed to be destroyed in a racial holy war. Christian identity adherents set up paramilitary compounds, Bible camps, radio stations, and churches from the Aryan Nations to the Covenant of the Sword in the Arm of the Lord, and they helped usher in a wave of homegrown terrorist groups such as The Order and individuals like Timothy. They carried out

the Oklahoma City bombing. Meanwhile, above ground, groups like Operation Rescue cheered on the violence against abortion providers while organizing mass protests at clinics with the aim of shutting them down. In twenty fifteen, when a gunman killed three people in

a mass shooting at a clinic in Colorado Springs. The far right anti abortion movement had carried out eight murders, seventeen attempted murders, forty two bombings, in one hundred and eighty six arsons, all targeted against abortion clinics and providers. Wanted to know more about the history of far attacks on abortion access if they were indeed rising in the current post Stops period. We sat down with bullitsa Fowler

of the National Abortion Federation. Unfortunately, since abortion was legalized with the versus Weight decision, there has been a really coordinated campaign of harassment and violence to target abortion providers and try to stop access to legal abortion. And we've been tracking this since the late seventies. There have been a number of escalating events, everything from clinic protests and clinic blockades all the way up to arsons and murders

of providers just because they do this work. So when we talk about this, it's very real, it's very real threats, and it is really terrorism that's happening by a coordinated group of people and individuals who really are aimed at stopping any access to legal abortion care. So we definitely, and have seen for a long time that there is an overlap between the people that target abortion providers and the people that are involved in other types of violent

and extremist movements, including white nationalists. We've known that for

a long time existed many years. In fact, in the eighties, the KKK began creating one imposters listing the personal information of abortion providers, and the first provider who was murdered, doctor David Gunn, who was murdered in nineteen ninety three, was murdered by someone who was a white supremacist who had been mentored by someone who was a former KKK member, And so we've seen the overlap of these groups, and in the last couple of years we've seen that overlap

be more coordinated and more public. So on January sixth at the insurrection, a lot of our members were watching on TV and recognized people because they were the same

people that protest at their clinics. In fact, providers that even noted that day of pulling in the parking lot and not seeing their usual protesters and wondering what was going on because they saw less people outside of clinics, And we later found out it's because many of them were at the Capitol, and a number of people who are active the anti abortion movement have boasted about being at the insurrection, posted video and pictures of themselves at

the insurrection, and so it's very clear to us and we very much see that overlap. We also see more more of these right wing groups actually showing up and participating at anti abortion events, so attending some of the marches around the country in a more visible way than

we've seen in the past. Sometimes these right wing groups will do quote unquote security for the anti abortion movement, so when they have people who are speaking or they're holding large events to target providers, they'll get security assistance from white nationalist groups. And so, you know, it's particularly disturbing to see. It doesn't surprise us because we've been we've known that there's an overlap in these groups for

a really long time. But as as we've seen in recent years, as people seem to be more okay being more visible about their membership in these groups or more vocal about their hate, we're seeing it more publicly. The anti abortion movement is not doing anything to distance themselves from these groups. So since the leak happened, last May, we immediately saw an increase in harassment and online posts

that were threatening toward abortion providers. Even though we got a preview of the decision and we knew what was coming and that it would lead to clinics closing, that wasn't enough for some people. We saw calls for people to go and burn clinics, or go and take matters into their own hands and not wait for the decision, to go and try and stop abortions from being provided that moment, and so we track those types of online posts.

We saw a real spike in May and June around the decision, and we also started immediately hearing from our member clinics that they were seeing an increase in protesters and increase in threats, and it increase in the intensity and hostility of those activities, so more really aggressive protesters that were touching patients and staff, yelling at patients and staff, photographing patients and staff, and you know, since the decision, we have seen a number of clinics close in places

that are considered more hostile to abortion rights. But we know from our past experience that when a clinic closes, the protesters don't just give up and go home. In many cases, anti abortion individuals will travel the same paths that patients are traveling, and they will go to other states where abortion remains successible and target the clinics there. So we are seeing an increase in activity in the places where abortion is remaining legal and where patients are

going to get care. And we're still you know, we're just now collecting the numbers for twenty twenty two, so we don't we don't have those for a little bit, but we do know anecdotally and what we're hearing from members and what we're seeing on the ground is that there is an increase in that activity. There have been a few arsons this year. We're also seeing clinic invasions continue, and these are instances where people might pose as patients.

In some cases, they go to a lot of work to try and infiltrate the clinic and find out about their practices for making appointments, and then they will pose as patients, make fake appointments and try to get into the clinic forcibly if they if they have to, and then once they're inside they're harassing patients, they refuse to leave.

In some cases they hand out flowers or sing or yell in California, they walked through the halls screaming the name of the doctor, ordering the doctor to come out and face them, and it was very traumatic for staff. They didn't know if this person was armed or what they were doing. And you know, they had patients in procedure rooms with them or in counseling rooms, and they were locking the door and sheltering in place, and it was very frightening. And we continue to see these types

of invasions happen across the country. Ironically, however, laws passed in the nineteen nineties designed to protect people seeking abortions and reproductive healthcare have now been weaponized against those who have been taking action in the wake of the Daub's decision, most notably under the banner of Jane's Revenge, a moniker used by anonymous activists taking action, usually in the form were broken windows and graffiti against anti choice, crisis pregnancy

centers and beyond. As Natasha Leonard wrote in the Intercept, Congress passed the Face Act in nineteen eighty four, owing the assassinations and mass clinic blockades, making the physical obstruction of clinics a federal offense. As well as threats of force and violence against clinic workers and clinic property. In its thirty years on the books has been used sparingly.

Now this laws being used to prosecute to reproductive rights activists who allegedly spray painted the outside walls of misleading and dangerous crisis pregnancy centers known as CPCs and now face up to twelve years in prison for the graffiti.

This use of the ACE Act against those fighting to protect reproductive freedom and autonomy by weaponizing laws supposedly aimed at those threatening it mirrors the numerous domestic terrorism charges lodged against forest defenders in Atlanta, made possible by a bill in twenty seventeen following the massacre of nine black parishioners by the white supremast. Dylan Roof stay with us, it can happen here, will return after these words from

our sponsors. As the culture War is deepened on the right and even mainstream GEOP leaders have embraced white nationalists talking points, many openly neo Nazi and white supremise groups have come to see the anti choice movement as a lucrative recruiting ground in a point of engagement with the wider right wing base. Again, we hear from clinic defender Becks in New York, an abortion doula Ash in North Carolina.

In our case in New York City, the group that we defend, the Clinic Front, is this Catholic group that gets an armed escort from the NYPD. So that's one thing that really scares me, you know, when we talk about a far right is that the NYPD has been aiding these far right groups and getting them escorts for a very very long time. And so I think that kind of like goes to a lot of the fears that a lot of us have when it comes to this kind of collaboration and the changing face of anti

abortion protesters. We already know down here that cops and clan go hand in hand, and unfortunately, like newly white radicalized I don't know if you can call them that, but like politicized white women who want to defend clinics, they saw they they realize these realities, like the cops are not here to defend you or people who want to have abortions, and we actually don't need the cops to have abortions and to make reproductive justice a real

possibility in all of our lives. I'm thinking here also about like the need to decriminalize abortion and not legalize abortion again, as an abolitionist, as an abortion doula, and as someone who's had abortions, I'm making these connect and as a trans person. Right, I'm making these connections that like the folks who are standing outside of abortion clinics, the anti choice, the anti abortion folks, these are the

same people who are pro police people. These are the same people who are racist in our communities, who are classist, who are anti black, who are fascists, and furthermore, right, like these people who stand outside of abortion clinics, they are the same people perpetuating these rhetorics that like gay people are groomers, but also that like critical race theory

for examples, shouldn't be taught in school. I am making these connections, and I'm also going back to that reproductive justice framework that reminds me that, like, what do we have to do now is that we have to fight together, and one of the ways we can do that is by making these connections. Right, like these people are Christian evangelicals, they are fascists. Explicitly, we need to say that, and it behooves all of us to like, really fight together

along those lines. In the year since the attempted pro Trump coups on January six, neo Nazis, white supremacists, and Proud Boys have ramped up their presence at anti choice events. The neo Nazi group Patriot Front has shut up to march alongside various anti abortion groups, often to be bent with handshakes from anti abortion activists and police escorts to protect them from anti fascists. Several weeks ago, openly fascist groups took part in the yearly Walk for Life rally

in San Francisco, California. US thousands took to the city streets after being bust in from across the state. Marching alongside them were Proud Boys decked out in your uniforms and mass neo Nazis holding openly racist banners. Wanting to know more about this continued crossover, we spoke with anti fascist journalists Pshaw Singh based in southern California. In the wake of the reversal of Rovy Way, there was big spike in demonstrations from the right wing where they were

targeting clinics. They were targeting any kind of cool aboards with any kind of reproductive health anything. They were doing it for several months in places like California, where abortion is still provided and still accessible. That makes a lot of the anti abortion movement still feel like they're the victim of something even though they just had this massive political victory. And at least in Southern California, I've noticed

that they've continued to rally. They've had some pretty large rallies, especially for the pro life thing that happened recently, where cities around the country, including San Francisco, had some pretty alarmingly sized anti abortion rallies, and some of them, like in San Francisco, you had some of the more extremest elements, white supremacist elements showing up quite explicitly, quite proudly. And here in southern California, I've seen that starting to pick

up again. It's almost building off of the momentum from all these rallies, targeting drag shows, which have been excellent networking opportunities for right wing groups to work with more far right extremists and even about all out white supremacists. Once they get into a groove together, even if these groups don't always get along, they have a revolving door of enemies, and if it's time to target somebody because they think there's an advantage to it in the moment,

then they're going to do it. And right now it does seem like reproductive rights is back in the crosshairs alongside LGBTQ rights. Just a couple of weeks ago, there was a rally in southern California outside of a outside of a Walgreens shareholders meeting, where a lot of right wing activists were marching through the hotel chanting that Walgreens is killing people because they because you can get an

abortion fill through them. I think this has created a very tenuous situation where there's always someone to go after. If it's not planned parenthood this week, next week, go after your local pharmacy, go after your local clinic, go

after your local doctor. The an abortion movement is very malleable, it's very fluid, and right now they're taken whoever they can get, and that includes a lot of openly radical militant groups who they turn to as groups that can do quote unquote security work, you know, because they're afraid

of the left coming and attacking them. The anti abortion movement isn't sewing down as our guests from across the country of discuss the more mainstream organizations with deep pockets also aren't attempting to distance themselves from the street level fascist groups flocking to right wing demonstrations, especially at a time when far right violence is escalating across the country.

And our last segment, Iged correspondent Marcella speaks on recent anti choice demonstrations which brought together both the mainstream and the fringe, organized in part by progressive anti abortion Uprising, which weaponizes feminists and progressive language against drug store giants CBS and Walgreens in effort to stop them from selling abortion medication. Anti abortion people protest it outside like CBS on Walgreens. It's passed out a day like in multiple

places to prevent pharmacies from selling abortion pills. I'm honestly, like really angry at this, not only because these people are trying to make sure they completely takeaway our rights to bodily autonomy, but because you're also making me have to defend CVS and Walgreens. I've also thought about protesting outside CBS and Walgreens, but not because I'm obsessed with other people's to productive organs. I'm tired of them putting

everything I need behind a glass. Anyway, Like these abortion protests outside CBS and Walgreens were organized by the Progressive Anti Abortion Uprising. Yes, I will say that again, the Progressive Anti Abortion Uprising PAAU, which claims to want to dismantle the abortion industrial complex. Honestly, it sounds like the pa you think that you can just add industrial complex to something to make it sound bad, or they're just trying to sound cool to make people forget that they

are fascists. Like one interesting thing about PAU is they want to be so cool that their lead organizer, Lauren Handy, calls herself a feminist. I honestly can't believe that I have to say this, but being anti abortion immediately disqualifies you from being a feminist. Fun fact about Laura in Handy is that she randomly she didn't randomly. She was caught with five fetuses in her apartment and was indicted from blocking a clinic in Washington, DC in twenty and twenty.

So she's out here blocking clinics collecting fetuses just like doing the worst. This is like just the tip of the berg about how like these people are trying to act like their freedom fighters. Well, the PAU spokesperson literally said, and I quote, their vision to turn pharmacies into abortion businesses, which will exploit and kill disproportionately low income people and people of color for profit will be met with non violent resistance at every turn. That's hilarious. These people are

literally trying to make fascism sound like freedom fighting. Like if PAU actually cared about low income people and people of color, they would be giving away abortion pills that like every corner, not trying to stop people from buying them. And also they'd be boycotting CBS on Walgreens for totally different reasons. They wouldn't be boycotting Walgreens and CBS we're trying to sell people abortion fills. What they'll be doing

is that there would be boycotting Walgreens and CBS. We're putting toothpaste behind a lock glass, which makes it much harder for poor people to get a five finger discount on things that they need. That is going to do it for us today. Thanks for tuning in once again. This has been it's going down, occupying the offices of it could happen here. Be sure to follow us online. It's going down dot org, on Macedon at igd, Underscore News Until next time. It could Happen Here as a

production of cool Zone Media. Well more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website cool zonemedia dot com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It could Happen Here, updated monthly at cool zonemedia dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.