The Fight for Democracy in Texas

Together, Texas's three bills represent dramatic incursions on the basic rights to vote, bodily integrity, and public safety.

BY WENDY CHAVKIN
SEPTEMBER 9, 2021

The January 6 assault on the Capitol threatened U.S. democracy. Individuals unhappy with the voters’ choice of Joe Biden as president used violence to try to prevent Congress from completing the electoral vote count and certifying the election results.

Now, similar Constitution-ignoring, citizen-enforced actions are being incited through law at the state and local level. This is creating serious new threats to our democracy, but also new openings for collaborative action by movements usually focused on single issues.

continued: https://progressive.org/op-eds/fight-for-democracy-texas-chavkin-210909/

Thickening the Thin Blue Line at the Capitol and the Clinic

In Louisville, Ky., an armed police officer joined an anti-abortion protest outside a clinic. When the thin blue line of the police becomes aligned against upholding the law, injustice prevails.

3/2/2021
by CAROL MASON

Defying the law is not what police and governmental officials are supposed to do; they are supposed to uphold the law. But recent events illuminate concerted efforts to radicalize officers as anti-government agents. Those investigating such radicalization in relation to storming the Capitol might also look at what has been going on around abortion clinics. Anti-abortion militants have a well-developed rationale with which they encourage law enforcement to defy the law.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2021/03/02/thin-blue-line-capitol-anti-abortion-clinic-police-protest-operation-save-america-kentucky/

How Trumpism Fostered Anti-Choice Violence

The same violent brew of paramilitary warriors, white supremacists, and Christian militants that we saw descending on the Capitol building merged to oppose abortion with lethal force decades ago.

2/9/2021
by CAROL MASON, Ms. Magazine

Two weeks ago in Tennessee a gunman shot out the door of a Planned Parenthood. As more researchers of the January 6 Capitol siege forecast months if not years of increased domestic terrorism, it is likely that some of it will be aimed at reproductive health care workers. Abortion opponents not only were part of the destructive melee at the Capitol—they also have modeled radicalization techniques used in building insurrectionary fever by successfully deploying incendiary lies and conspiracy theories.

The pro-life presence in Washington on January 6 has been, with few exceptions, largely underreported.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2021/02/09/trump-capitol-riots-women-abortion-anti-choice-violence-anti-abortion-extremists-propaganda/

Anti-Abortion, Pro-Insurrection

Opponents of the right to choose played a key role in the January 6 uprising in the U.S. Capitol.

by Eleanor J. Bader
February 3, 2021

Pundits eager to dissect the origins of the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol rarely include the misogynist anti-abortion movement in their musings. But they should.

Not only did many prominent anti-abortion groups and individuals attend the gathering—including Operation Save America leaders Frank Campana, Ante Pavkovic, and Jason Storms; former Planned Parenthood staffer—now an outspoken antiabortionist—Abby Johnson; convicted clinic bomber John Brockhoeft; and clinic harasser turned West Virginia House of Delegates member Derrick Evans—but racism, vitriolic hatred of socialism and communism, and reverence for militarism have for decades been a part of the ideology gluing violent opponents of abortion to the broader cause.

Continued: https://progressive.org/dispatches/anti-abortion-pro-insurrection-bader-210203/