Speaker 1: Welcome back, Dick had happened here? Once again the folks
Speaker 1: from It's going down or taking over the show? As
Speaker 1: today we do a deep dive into how autonomous organizers
Speaker 1: are pushing back against a wave of far right attacks
Speaker 1: on reproductive freedom and autonomy across the United States. A
Speaker 1: note to our listeners, this episode will include discussion on
Speaker 1: both sexual and far right violence. I'm your host, Mike Andrews.
Speaker 1: Let's get into it. In May of twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: Politico first reported on the historic league from the Supreme
Speaker 1: Court about the overturning of Row versus Wade, the landmark
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three decision which ruled under the Fourteenth Amendment,
Speaker 1: that a pregnant person has the right to privacy, including
Speaker 1: the liberty to abort their fetus. In June of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two, the Dabb's Decisions struck down Row, ruling that
Speaker 1: the Constitution does not guarantee a person the right to
Speaker 1: an abortion, triggering a wave of state governments rolling abortion
Speaker 1: rights and access for many. However, the fall of Row
Speaker 1: only further cemented a lack of access to reproductive healthcare
Speaker 1: has already been the norm for millions. As the Hill wrote, quote,
Speaker 1: as of twenty twenty, six states had only one abortion
Speaker 1: clinic each in eighty nine percent of America's counties had
Speaker 1: no abortion clinic at all, the cumulative effect of decades
Speaker 1: of restrictions authored by anti abortion lawmakers. This is not
Speaker 1: to say that things haven't gotten worse. They have in
Speaker 1: the months following the dabb's decision. In states like Ohio,
Speaker 1: where access has been attacked, A rape survivor was forced
Speaker 1: to travel out of state to find an abortion, while
Speaker 1: local politicians, including the state's Republican attorney general, claimed on
Speaker 1: Fox News that the story was totally fabricated. In other instances,
Speaker 1: people in Ohio have been denied care even though they
Speaker 1: faced potentially life threatening complications. In Texas, one woman nearly
Speaker 1: died due to sepsis because she was initially barred access
Speaker 1: to an abortion by doctors. And these are only some
Speaker 1: of the stories that have made headlines. The deeper impact
Speaker 1: on this countrywide attack and reproductive health has hit low
Speaker 1: income and communities of color the hardest. A recent study
Speaker 1: from the University of San Francisco found that quote a
Speaker 1: third of American women of reproductive age now face excessive
Speaker 1: travel times to obtain an abortion, while twice as many
Speaker 1: are being forced to travel more than an hour to
Speaker 1: reach an abortion provider. In short, attacks on abortion, coupled
Speaker 1: with the already exploding wealth gap, lack of access to healthcare,
Speaker 1: the rising cost of living, and the continuing COVID nineteen pandemic,
Speaker 1: will only expand existing equalities, especially for people of color,
Speaker 1: the disabled, and queer and trans folks. In particular, on
Speaker 1: the legal front, some states have pushed to expand abortion access,
Speaker 1: and many are challenging legal attacks in the courtroom. Minnesota,
Speaker 1: for instance, most recently became the first state to enshrine
Speaker 1: abortion as a right. Meanwhile, many continued to donate to
Speaker 1: abortion funds and nonprofits like Planned Parenthood, or even launching
Speaker 1: mobile clinics to provide care and areas hit the hardest
Speaker 1: due to recent bands. But as our first two guests,
Speaker 1: Beck's part of a clinic defense group in New York City,
Speaker 1: in ashe an abortion doula in North Carolina, reported, many
Speaker 1: autonomous organizers aren't putting their faith in the courts, the cops,
Speaker 1: or the state. You know. Living in New York City,
Speaker 1: abortion is legal, and it is legal before a row,
Speaker 1: and it's been legal after row, but that doesn't really
Speaker 1: necessarily mean anything kind of is what we've seen. So
Speaker 1: one of the things that we've seen is we've seen
Speaker 1: on anti abortion protesters and activists coming up from red
Speaker 1: states to target blue states now and so we've definitely
Speaker 1: seen their presence increasing outside of the clinic that we
Speaker 1: defend and soho in Manhattan. And so that's I would say,
Speaker 1: is one of the biggest things that we've seen is
Speaker 1: that they really are targeting Blue states, are targeting New
Speaker 1: York City. There I'm actively trying to recruit people to
Speaker 1: come to New York City, is I think the biggest
Speaker 1: thing that we've seen. And then also in New York City,
Speaker 1: we've been struggling a lot with a really esculatory police presence.
Speaker 1: I don't our clinice. So that's the other thing that
Speaker 1: we're definitely really really struggling with is the response of
Speaker 1: the state after Doubs. So the first thing that I
Speaker 1: want folks to know is that people abortion haers, people
Speaker 1: who might have abortions. Where I am in time and space,
Speaker 1: they have always already been navigating some of these post
Speaker 1: rorealities that a lot of folks are just getting hipped
Speaker 1: to like after that fateful Friday in June last year.
Speaker 1: And so I want to name here that we've always
Speaker 1: had a seventy two hour waiting period in North Carolina,
Speaker 1: which is one of the longest waiting periods in the country.
Speaker 1: And there's a slew of other things that we find
Speaker 1: both hostile and restrictive. And I'm using those words to
Speaker 1: describe a situation, an ongoing situation, because these are the
Speaker 1: words that are being used to describe North Carolina now
Speaker 1: as we're seeing an influx of folks coming to North Carolina.
Speaker 1: So I'm saying that for the folks who live here
Speaker 1: always already like they've been dealing with a restrictive, hostile climate.
Speaker 1: Becks just shared a little bit about like the presence
Speaker 1: of anti abortion protesters, so we've always been dealing with that.
Speaker 1: In twenty eighteen, the abortion clinic that I had two
Speaker 1: abortions at in my life, they saw the most anti
Speaker 1: abortion protesters in the Southeast, and we continue to see this.
Speaker 1: We also continue to see as we see these anti
Speaker 1: abortion protesters right a police presence, and we know or
Speaker 1: I'm concerned about what that means for black folks having abortions,
Speaker 1: for people who are undocumented and for people who otherwise
Speaker 1: like don't want the police all up in their business.
Speaker 1: In addition to what's changed since jobs are not change, right,
Speaker 1: but change, we have semen influx of folks coming to
Speaker 1: North Carolina from states where abortion is illegal or there
Speaker 1: are bands kind of early ingestation, and we're seeing those
Speaker 1: folks come to the clinics and access the services and
Speaker 1: the support networks that we have here in North Carolina.
Speaker 1: I think that one thing with the group that I
Speaker 1: work with called ed VIC for Abortion Rights, one thing
Speaker 1: that we've been working really hard on is not only
Speaker 1: talking about abortion, not only talking about you know, going
Speaker 1: beyond just legalizing it, but also really focusing on like
Speaker 1: our communities and building mutual aid networks, building repro justice networks,
Speaker 1: and also just working overall on like community defense. So
Speaker 1: we work with a lot of mutual aid organizations all
Speaker 1: over the city of New York. And that's one thing
Speaker 1: that we're doing, like Ash was saying, is we're focusing on,
Speaker 1: you know, how do these people who are outside of
Speaker 1: our clinics are not only anti abortion, but they're also
Speaker 1: anti LGBTQ. They are fascist. That is something that we
Speaker 1: should be saying they are also pro police. None. None
Speaker 1: of these things happen inside of a vacuum. They're all interconnected.
Speaker 1: And I think that that's one thing that we really
Speaker 1: really have to do is talk about how the issue
Speaker 1: of abortion bridge is out to so many other things,
Speaker 1: and we can't only fight one issue. We have to
Speaker 1: fight all of them. But we also have to fight
Speaker 1: the root of where these things are coming from. And
Speaker 1: they're coming from this mass conservative movement that's been being
Speaker 1: built since the nineteen seventies, you know, groups like Focus
Speaker 1: on the Family, like the ETI Federalists. These groups have
Speaker 1: so much influence in our society, and we need to
Speaker 1: be going after all of it. We can't only be
Speaker 1: going after you know, one tiny, you know, sector of
Speaker 1: the massive problem, because like Ash said, it is all interconnected. Here,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about like some political education that needs to happen,
Speaker 1: like and that is the framework and the theories of
Speaker 1: reproductive Justice. I know that they recognize so many it
Speaker 1: recognizes so many things. But one of the things that
Speaker 1: grounds me that it recognizes that r J recognizes is
Speaker 1: that dismantling white supremacy is key to achieving reproductive justice.
Speaker 1: It also says it posits that we live interconnected lives
Speaker 1: and not single issue lives. And it also for me,
Speaker 1: this yields that, like we can't rely on the state
Speaker 1: to provide what we need. I'm seeing abortion doulas, clinic escorts,
Speaker 1: abortion funds, and other organizers and organizations really come together
Speaker 1: to support people having abortions and resist criminalization and state
Speaker 1: violence right now, and we need to see more of that.
Speaker 1: You know, you talk about pro choice. I think it's
Speaker 1: so whack, like the logics of pro choice. We need
Speaker 1: to go further beyond the logics of pro choice and
Speaker 1: understand that RJ says that there is no choice without access.
Speaker 1: And furthermore, RJ posits that the key to controlling entire
Speaker 1: communities is to controlling bodies. So if they're coming for
Speaker 1: the trans people on their HRT and their access to
Speaker 1: gender affirming and medical care, then they're gonna come for
Speaker 1: everyone else. Then they're gonna come for the abortion avers.
Speaker 1: They've been coming for the poor people. I think that,
Speaker 1: like again, when we go back to that reproductive justice framework,
Speaker 1: we can begin to like make these connections. And I'm
Speaker 1: also saying this as an organizer, like reproductive justice is
Speaker 1: my lane, but so as like environmental justice and so
Speaker 1: as racial justice. And I'm on the front lines of
Speaker 1: different movements, and I go back to this this framework
Speaker 1: because it acknowledges that, like black people need an in too,
Speaker 1: anti black racism, and we need an end to the
Speaker 1: police and clean fucking water right now. I don't know
Speaker 1: of a framework that says that, like we ought to
Speaker 1: demand all of those things right fucking now, and that
Speaker 1: we actually can't live self determined lives without all of
Speaker 1: that shit. And so I'm ready to talk about RJ,
Speaker 1: like I'm ready to do that political education. I think
Speaker 1: it's ongoing work, and right like, you don't have to
Speaker 1: be an abortion dou lah or a frontline organizer to
Speaker 1: help someone get to their appointment, to fund an abortion,
Speaker 1: to affirm someone's decision and support their decision to have
Speaker 1: an abortion. And so we really need that, like we
Speaker 1: need that vibe right now. We need people to show
Speaker 1: up that way. I think that my biggest frustration with
Speaker 1: Democrats is they've been telling us for years, like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, vote for us, vote for us. They've been
Speaker 1: fundraising off of the issue of abortion for decades now.
Speaker 1: They have done absolutely nothing, And I think that what
Speaker 1: they've really done, is they've really made us, made us
Speaker 1: as in the general like American populists feel as though
Speaker 1: voting is the only way that we can change things,
Speaker 1: and that voting is the only way that we can
Speaker 1: like show our impact and like help our communities, when
Speaker 1: in reality, it isn't. It's going out onto the streets.
Speaker 1: It's also you know, doing abortion do the work. It's
Speaker 1: also you know, going out defunding clinics. It's doing all
Speaker 1: of this work. And we don't need the Democrats to
Speaker 1: do that. And what we need to be doing is
Speaker 1: we need to be talking about the state and how
Speaker 1: we can go beyond the state. I also want to
Speaker 1: say here, like fuck Row. Like Row is the kind
Speaker 1: of legal infrastructure that made abortion possible, but it also
Speaker 1: made it possible for like both the Democrats, the Republicans,
Speaker 1: the Christian Evangelicals, anyone who was checking for it to
Speaker 1: take abortion away. So like fuck Row. It also gave
Speaker 1: us the trimester framework, which is like really whack. And
Speaker 1: it also kind of made it more possible for the
Speaker 1: states and the federal government to put in bands and
Speaker 1: restrictions on abortion. That's something that we need to get
Speaker 1: clear about as well. As we fight to decriminalize and
Speaker 1: not legislate further abortion. Stay with us, it could happen here.
Speaker 1: We'll return after these words from our sponsors. On July
Speaker 1: twenty seventh, nineteen ninety six, Eric Rudoff said off a
Speaker 1: nail bomb during the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. The
Speaker 1: explosion killed one person immediately. All over one hundred more
Speaker 1: were horrifically injured. In the communicate, claiming responsibility for the bombing,
Speaker 1: Rudoff denounced the Olympics, abortion and LGBTQ rights with talking
Speaker 1: points that seemed ripped right out of Tucker Carlson's nightly
Speaker 1: news headlines. He wrote, the world converged upon Atlanta to
Speaker 1: celebrate the ideals of global socialism. The purpose of my
Speaker 1: attack the Washington government sanctioning of abortion on demand. Along
Speaker 1: with abortion, another assault upon the integrity of American society
Speaker 1: is the considered effort to legitimize the practice of homosexuality,
Speaker 1: whether it's gay marriage, homosexual adoption, hate crime laws including gays,
Speaker 1: or the attempt to introduce a homosexual normalizing curriculum into
Speaker 1: our schools. All of these efforts should be ruthlessly opposed.
Speaker 1: The existence of our culture depends on it. Rudolph would
Speaker 1: go on to carry out more deadly attacks against abortion
Speaker 1: clinics in a queer nightclub, releasing communications under the banner
Speaker 1: of the Army of God, a group which endorsed leaderless
Speaker 1: resistance and was linked to the white supremaci Christian Identity
Speaker 1: movement and the murder of multiple abortion providers. The Army
Speaker 1: of God was just one formation that grew out of
Speaker 1: Christian Identity, a mix of white supremacy and Christianity. The
Speaker 1: priests that Jews were Satanic and people of color were
Speaker 1: subhuman and needed to be destroyed in a racial holy war.
Speaker 1: Christian identity adherents set up paramilitary compounds, Bible camps, radio stations,
Speaker 1: and churches from the Aryan Nations to the Covenant of
Speaker 1: the Sword in the Arm of the Lord, and they
Speaker 1: helped usher in a wave of homegrown terrorist groups such
Speaker 1: as The Order and individuals like Timothy. They carried out
Speaker 1: the Oklahoma City bombing. Meanwhile, above ground, groups like Operation
Speaker 1: Rescue cheered on the violence against abortion providers while organizing
Speaker 1: mass protests at clinics with the aim of shutting them down.
Speaker 1: In twenty fifteen, when a gunman killed three people in
Speaker 1: a mass shooting at a clinic in Colorado Springs. The
Speaker 1: far right anti abortion movement had carried out eight murders,
Speaker 1: seventeen attempted murders, forty two bombings, in one hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty six arsons, all targeted against abortion clinics and providers.
Speaker 1: Wanted to know more about the history of far attacks
Speaker 1: on abortion access if they were indeed rising in the
Speaker 1: current post Stops period. We sat down with bullitsa Fowler
Speaker 1: of the National Abortion Federation. Unfortunately, since abortion was legalized
Speaker 1: with the versus Weight decision, there has been a really
Speaker 1: coordinated campaign of harassment and violence to target abortion providers
Speaker 1: and try to stop access to legal abortion. And we've
Speaker 1: been tracking this since the late seventies. There have been
Speaker 1: a number of escalating events, everything from clinic protests and
Speaker 1: clinic blockades all the way up to arsons and murders
Speaker 1: of providers just because they do this work. So when
Speaker 1: we talk about this, it's very real, it's very real threats,
Speaker 1: and it is really terrorism that's happening by a coordinated
Speaker 1: group of people and individuals who really are aimed at
Speaker 1: stopping any access to legal abortion care. So we definitely,
Speaker 1: and have seen for a long time that there is
Speaker 1: an overlap between the people that target abortion providers and
Speaker 1: the people that are involved in other types of violent
Speaker 1: and extremist movements, including white nationalists. We've known that for
Speaker 1: a long time existed many years. In fact, in the eighties,
Speaker 1: the KKK began creating one imposters listing the personal information
Speaker 1: of abortion providers, and the first provider who was murdered,
Speaker 1: doctor David Gunn, who was murdered in nineteen ninety three,
Speaker 1: was murdered by someone who was a white supremacist who
Speaker 1: had been mentored by someone who was a former KKK member,
Speaker 1: And so we've seen the overlap of these groups, and
Speaker 1: in the last couple of years we've seen that overlap
Speaker 1: be more coordinated and more public. So on January sixth
Speaker 1: at the insurrection, a lot of our members were watching
Speaker 1: on TV and recognized people because they were the same
Speaker 1: people that protest at their clinics. In fact, providers that
Speaker 1: even noted that day of pulling in the parking lot
Speaker 1: and not seeing their usual protesters and wondering what was
Speaker 1: going on because they saw less people outside of clinics,
Speaker 1: And we later found out it's because many of them
Speaker 1: were at the Capitol, and a number of people who
Speaker 1: are active the anti abortion movement have boasted about being
Speaker 1: at the insurrection, posted video and pictures of themselves at
Speaker 1: the insurrection, and so it's very clear to us and
Speaker 1: we very much see that overlap. We also see more
Speaker 1: more of these right wing groups actually showing up and
Speaker 1: participating at anti abortion events, so attending some of the
Speaker 1: marches around the country in a more visible way than
Speaker 1: we've seen in the past. Sometimes these right wing groups
Speaker 1: will do quote unquote security for the anti abortion movement,
Speaker 1: so when they have people who are speaking or they're
Speaker 1: holding large events to target providers, they'll get security assistance
Speaker 1: from white nationalist groups. And so, you know, it's particularly
Speaker 1: disturbing to see. It doesn't surprise us because we've been
Speaker 1: we've known that there's an overlap in these groups for
Speaker 1: a really long time. But as as we've seen in
Speaker 1: recent years, as people seem to be more okay being
Speaker 1: more visible about their membership in these groups or more
Speaker 1: vocal about their hate, we're seeing it more publicly. The
Speaker 1: anti abortion movement is not doing anything to distance themselves
Speaker 1: from these groups. So since the leak happened, last May,
Speaker 1: we immediately saw an increase in harassment and online posts
Speaker 1: that were threatening toward abortion providers. Even though we got
Speaker 1: a preview of the decision and we knew what was
Speaker 1: coming and that it would lead to clinics closing, that
Speaker 1: wasn't enough for some people. We saw calls for people
Speaker 1: to go and burn clinics, or go and take matters
Speaker 1: into their own hands and not wait for the decision,
Speaker 1: to go and try and stop abortions from being provided
Speaker 1: that moment, and so we track those types of online posts.
Speaker 1: We saw a real spike in May and June around
Speaker 1: the decision, and we also started immediately hearing from our
Speaker 1: member clinics that they were seeing an increase in protesters
Speaker 1: and increase in threats, and it increase in the intensity
Speaker 1: and hostility of those activities, so more really aggressive protesters
Speaker 1: that were touching patients and staff, yelling at patients and staff,
Speaker 1: photographing patients and staff, and you know, since the decision,
Speaker 1: we have seen a number of clinics close in places
Speaker 1: that are considered more hostile to abortion rights. But we
Speaker 1: know from our past experience that when a clinic closes,
Speaker 1: the protesters don't just give up and go home. In
Speaker 1: many cases, anti abortion individuals will travel the same paths
Speaker 1: that patients are traveling, and they will go to other
Speaker 1: states where abortion remains successible and target the clinics there.
Speaker 1: So we are seeing an increase in activity in the
Speaker 1: places where abortion is remaining legal and where patients are
Speaker 1: going to get care. And we're still you know, we're
Speaker 1: just now collecting the numbers for twenty twenty two, so
Speaker 1: we don't we don't have those for a little bit,
Speaker 1: but we do know anecdotally and what we're hearing from
Speaker 1: members and what we're seeing on the ground is that
Speaker 1: there is an increase in that activity. There have been
Speaker 1: a few arsons this year. We're also seeing clinic invasions continue,
Speaker 1: and these are instances where people might pose as patients.
Speaker 1: In some cases, they go to a lot of work
Speaker 1: to try and infiltrate the clinic and find out about
Speaker 1: their practices for making appointments, and then they will pose
Speaker 1: as patients, make fake appointments and try to get into
Speaker 1: the clinic forcibly if they if they have to, and
Speaker 1: then once they're inside they're harassing patients, they refuse to leave.
Speaker 1: In some cases they hand out flowers or sing or
Speaker 1: yell in California, they walked through the halls screaming the
Speaker 1: name of the doctor, ordering the doctor to come out
Speaker 1: and face them, and it was very traumatic for staff.
Speaker 1: They didn't know if this person was armed or what
Speaker 1: they were doing. And you know, they had patients in
Speaker 1: procedure rooms with them or in counseling rooms, and they
Speaker 1: were locking the door and sheltering in place, and it
Speaker 1: was very frightening. And we continue to see these types
Speaker 1: of invasions happen across the country. Ironically, however, laws passed
Speaker 1: in the nineteen nineties designed to protect people seeking abortions
Speaker 1: and reproductive healthcare have now been weaponized against those who
Speaker 1: have been taking action in the wake of the Daub's decision,
Speaker 1: most notably under the banner of Jane's Revenge, a moniker
Speaker 1: used by anonymous activists taking action, usually in the form
Speaker 1: were broken windows and graffiti against anti choice, crisis pregnancy
Speaker 1: centers and beyond. As Natasha Leonard wrote in the Intercept,
Speaker 1: Congress passed the Face Act in nineteen eighty four, owing
Speaker 1: the assassinations and mass clinic blockades, making the physical obstruction
Speaker 1: of clinics a federal offense. As well as threats of
Speaker 1: force and violence against clinic workers and clinic property. In
Speaker 1: its thirty years on the books has been used sparingly.
Speaker 1: Now this laws being used to prosecute to reproductive rights
Speaker 1: activists who allegedly spray painted the outside walls of misleading
Speaker 1: and dangerous crisis pregnancy centers known as CPCs and now
Speaker 1: face up to twelve years in prison for the graffiti.
Speaker 1: This use of the ACE Act against those fighting to
Speaker 1: protect reproductive freedom and autonomy by weaponizing laws supposedly aimed
Speaker 1: at those threatening it mirrors the numerous domestic terrorism charges
Speaker 1: lodged against forest defenders in Atlanta, made possible by a
Speaker 1: bill in twenty seventeen following the massacre of nine black
Speaker 1: parishioners by the white supremast. Dylan Roof stay with us,
Speaker 1: it can happen here, will return after these words from
Speaker 1: our sponsors. As the culture War is deepened on the
Speaker 1: right and even mainstream GEOP leaders have embraced white nationalists
Speaker 1: talking points, many openly neo Nazi and white supremise groups
Speaker 1: have come to see the anti choice movement as a
Speaker 1: lucrative recruiting ground in a point of engagement with the
Speaker 1: wider right wing base. Again, we hear from clinic defender
Speaker 1: Becks in New York, an abortion doula Ash in North Carolina.
Speaker 1: In our case in New York City, the group that
Speaker 1: we defend, the Clinic Front, is this Catholic group that
Speaker 1: gets an armed escort from the NYPD. So that's one
Speaker 1: thing that really scares me, you know, when we talk
Speaker 1: about a far right is that the NYPD has been
Speaker 1: aiding these far right groups and getting them escorts for
Speaker 1: a very very long time. And so I think that
Speaker 1: kind of like goes to a lot of the fears
Speaker 1: that a lot of us have when it comes to
Speaker 1: this kind of collaboration and the changing face of anti
Speaker 1: abortion protesters. We already know down here that cops and
Speaker 1: clan go hand in hand, and unfortunately, like newly white
Speaker 1: radicalized I don't know if you can call them that,
Speaker 1: but like politicized white women who want to defend clinics,
Speaker 1: they saw they they realize these realities, like the cops
Speaker 1: are not here to defend you or people who want
Speaker 1: to have abortions, and we actually don't need the cops
Speaker 1: to have abortions and to make reproductive justice a real
Speaker 1: possibility in all of our lives. I'm thinking here also
Speaker 1: about like the need to decriminalize abortion and not legalize
Speaker 1: abortion again, as an abolitionist, as an abortion doula, and
Speaker 1: as someone who's had abortions, I'm making these connect and
Speaker 1: as a trans person. Right, I'm making these connections that
Speaker 1: like the folks who are standing outside of abortion clinics,
Speaker 1: the anti choice, the anti abortion folks, these are the
Speaker 1: same people who are pro police people. These are the
Speaker 1: same people who are racist in our communities, who are classist,
Speaker 1: who are anti black, who are fascists, and furthermore, right,
Speaker 1: like these people who stand outside of abortion clinics, they
Speaker 1: are the same people perpetuating these rhetorics that like gay
Speaker 1: people are groomers, but also that like critical race theory
Speaker 1: for examples, shouldn't be taught in school. I am making
Speaker 1: these connections, and I'm also going back to that reproductive
Speaker 1: justice framework that reminds me that, like, what do we
Speaker 1: have to do now is that we have to fight together,
Speaker 1: and one of the ways we can do that is
Speaker 1: by making these connections. Right, like these people are Christian evangelicals,
Speaker 1: they are fascists. Explicitly, we need to say that, and
Speaker 1: it behooves all of us to like, really fight together
Speaker 1: along those lines. In the year since the attempted pro
Speaker 1: Trump coups on January six, neo Nazis, white supremacists, and
Speaker 1: Proud Boys have ramped up their presence at anti choice events.
Speaker 1: The neo Nazi group Patriot Front has shut up to
Speaker 1: march alongside various anti abortion groups, often to be bent
Speaker 1: with handshakes from anti abortion activists and police escorts to
Speaker 1: protect them from anti fascists. Several weeks ago, openly fascist
Speaker 1: groups took part in the yearly Walk for Life rally
Speaker 1: in San Francisco, California. US thousands took to the city
Speaker 1: streets after being bust in from across the state. Marching
Speaker 1: alongside them were Proud Boys decked out in your uniforms
Speaker 1: and mass neo Nazis holding openly racist banners. Wanting to
Speaker 1: know more about this continued crossover, we spoke with anti
Speaker 1: fascist journalists Pshaw Singh based in southern California. In the
Speaker 1: wake of the reversal of Rovy Way, there was big
Speaker 1: spike in demonstrations from the right wing where they were
Speaker 1: targeting clinics. They were targeting any kind of cool aboards
Speaker 1: with any kind of reproductive health anything. They were doing
Speaker 1: it for several months in places like California, where abortion
Speaker 1: is still provided and still accessible. That makes a lot
Speaker 1: of the anti abortion movement still feel like they're the
Speaker 1: victim of something even though they just had this massive
Speaker 1: political victory. And at least in Southern California, I've noticed
Speaker 1: that they've continued to rally. They've had some pretty large rallies,
Speaker 1: especially for the pro life thing that happened recently, where
Speaker 1: cities around the country, including San Francisco, had some pretty
Speaker 1: alarmingly sized anti abortion rallies, and some of them, like
Speaker 1: in San Francisco, you had some of the more extremest elements,
Speaker 1: white supremacist elements showing up quite explicitly, quite proudly. And
Speaker 1: here in southern California, I've seen that starting to pick
Speaker 1: up again. It's almost building off of the momentum from
Speaker 1: all these rallies, targeting drag shows, which have been excellent
Speaker 1: networking opportunities for right wing groups to work with more
Speaker 1: far right extremists and even about all out white supremacists.
Speaker 1: Once they get into a groove together, even if these
Speaker 1: groups don't always get along, they have a revolving door
Speaker 1: of enemies, and if it's time to target somebody because
Speaker 1: they think there's an advantage to it in the moment,
Speaker 1: then they're going to do it. And right now it
Speaker 1: does seem like reproductive rights is back in the crosshairs
Speaker 1: alongside LGBTQ rights. Just a couple of weeks ago, there
Speaker 1: was a rally in southern California outside of a outside
Speaker 1: of a Walgreens shareholders meeting, where a lot of right
Speaker 1: wing activists were marching through the hotel chanting that Walgreens
Speaker 1: is killing people because they because you can get an
Speaker 1: abortion fill through them. I think this has created a
Speaker 1: very tenuous situation where there's always someone to go after.
Speaker 1: If it's not planned parenthood this week, next week, go
Speaker 1: after your local pharmacy, go after your local clinic, go
Speaker 1: after your local doctor. The an abortion movement is very malleable,
Speaker 1: it's very fluid, and right now they're taken whoever they
Speaker 1: can get, and that includes a lot of openly radical
Speaker 1: militant groups who they turn to as groups that can
Speaker 1: do quote unquote security work, you know, because they're afraid
Speaker 1: of the left coming and attacking them. The anti abortion
Speaker 1: movement isn't sewing down as our guests from across the
Speaker 1: country of discuss the more mainstream organizations with deep pockets
Speaker 1: also aren't attempting to distance themselves from the street level
Speaker 1: fascist groups flocking to right wing demonstrations, especially at a
Speaker 1: time when far right violence is escalating across the country.
Speaker 1: And our last segment, Iged correspondent Marcella speaks on recent
Speaker 1: anti choice demonstrations which brought together both the mainstream and
Speaker 1: the fringe, organized in part by progressive anti abortion Uprising,
Speaker 1: which weaponizes feminists and progressive language against drug store giants
Speaker 1: CBS and Walgreens in effort to stop them from selling
Speaker 1: abortion medication. Anti abortion people protest it outside like CBS
Speaker 1: on Walgreens. It's passed out a day like in multiple
Speaker 1: places to prevent pharmacies from selling abortion pills. I'm honestly,
Speaker 1: like really angry at this, not only because these people
Speaker 1: are trying to make sure they completely takeaway our rights
Speaker 1: to bodily autonomy, but because you're also making me have
Speaker 1: to defend CVS and Walgreens. I've also thought about protesting
Speaker 1: outside CBS and Walgreens, but not because I'm obsessed with
Speaker 1: other people's to productive organs. I'm tired of them putting
Speaker 1: everything I need behind a glass. Anyway, Like these abortion
Speaker 1: protests outside CBS and Walgreens were organized by the Progressive
Speaker 1: Anti Abortion Uprising. Yes, I will say that again, the
Speaker 1: Progressive Anti Abortion Uprising PAAU, which claims to want to
Speaker 1: dismantle the abortion industrial complex. Honestly, it sounds like the
Speaker 1: pa you think that you can just add industrial complex
Speaker 1: to something to make it sound bad, or they're just
Speaker 1: trying to sound cool to make people forget that they
Speaker 1: are fascists. Like one interesting thing about PAU is they
Speaker 1: want to be so cool that their lead organizer, Lauren Handy,
Speaker 1: calls herself a feminist. I honestly can't believe that I
Speaker 1: have to say this, but being anti abortion immediately disqualifies
Speaker 1: you from being a feminist. Fun fact about Laura in
Speaker 1: Handy is that she randomly she didn't randomly. She was
Speaker 1: caught with five fetuses in her apartment and was indicted
Speaker 1: from blocking a clinic in Washington, DC in twenty and twenty.
Speaker 1: So she's out here blocking clinics collecting fetuses just like
Speaker 1: doing the worst. This is like just the tip of
Speaker 1: the berg about how like these people are trying to
Speaker 1: act like their freedom fighters. Well, the PAU spokesperson literally said,
Speaker 1: and I quote, their vision to turn pharmacies into abortion businesses,
Speaker 1: which will exploit and kill disproportionately low income people and
Speaker 1: people of color for profit will be met with non
Speaker 1: violent resistance at every turn. That's hilarious. These people are
Speaker 1: literally trying to make fascism sound like freedom fighting. Like
Speaker 1: if PAU actually cared about low income people and people
Speaker 1: of color, they would be giving away abortion pills that
Speaker 1: like every corner, not trying to stop people from buying them.
Speaker 1: And also they'd be boycotting CBS on Walgreens for totally
Speaker 1: different reasons. They wouldn't be boycotting Walgreens and CBS we're
Speaker 1: trying to sell people abortion fills. What they'll be doing
Speaker 1: is that there would be boycotting Walgreens and CBS. We're
Speaker 1: putting toothpaste behind a lock glass, which makes it much
Speaker 1: harder for poor people to get a five finger discount
Speaker 1: on things that they need. That is going to do
Speaker 1: it for us today. Thanks for tuning in once again.
Speaker 1: This has been it's going down, occupying the offices of
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