A Michigan reproductive health clinic last week faced a total blockade by anti-abortion extremists, who prevented patients from accessing care. But rather than promptly intervene, police allowed the blockade to continue, then volunteered to help protesters with their next action.
It’s part of an ongoing pattern of police expressing support for white terrorists. The deference officers showed to accused murderer Kyle Rittenhouse shocked many across the country. To women’s health providers who have long sought help from police, it came as no surprise. A single incident outside of a Michigan clinic might seem like a troubling anomaly. It’s part of a larger pattern of anti-abortion violence.
Michigan Police Express Sympathy for Anti-Abortion Extremists
The latest incident began August 28, when a large group of anti-abortion extremists descended on Northland Family Planning Center. Like many abortion clinics, Northland provides a wide range of essential health services, including birth control, pregnancy testing, adoption support, and well-woman care.
Access to these services is directly linked to a lower maternal mortality rate, fewer abortions, and healthier outcomes for women and their children. Anti-choice politics, though, have never really been about protecting women and children.
The extremists blocked the entrance to the clinic, standing or sitting shoulder-to-shoulder, without masks. As with most extremist anti-choice actions, most of the people blocking the clinic were men.
The Freedom of Access Clinic Entrances Act, a federal law, prohibits blocking abortion clinics by using “force, threat of force or physical obstruction to prevent someone from providing or receiving reproductive health services.” It’s also illegal to trespass on private property.
Rather than arrest the protesters, police engaged with them in a long philosophical discussion, repeatedly voicing support and sympathy. They continued to allow the anti-choice group to block access to the clinic for almost an hour before finally arresting them. Recordings of the event show a police officer urging the extremists to consult him for help before their next blockade.
The Long History of Anti-Choice Extremism
Clinics have documented thousands of acts of violence by those who claim to care about human life. Terrorists have bombed at least 42 abortion clinics, committed dozens of arsons, and killed at least 13 people. The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism reports that anti-abortion views are a leading motive for terrorist attacks throughout the United States, and that this has been the case for 40 years.
When police do not enforce the laws—especially when the president, Supreme Court justices, and numerous members of Congress have expressed support for abortion views far outside the mainstream—it emboldens terrorists. Those on the far right know that many police departments do not take their crimes seriously, and do not view those seeking or providing abortions as fully human. That’s why they continue escalating their attacks. It’s also why the next abortion clinic bombing is an inevitability, not some vague and distant fear.
Pro-Life Until Birth
For anti-choice activists, including those who blocked access to the Michigan clinic, this has never been about protecting life.
The COVID-19 pandemic has killed 186,000 Americans, with no signs of slowing. That includes more than 100 children. The same people who claim to care about life showed no concern for people going into the clinic, many of whom were there for pregnancy tests, basic health services, and reproductive health counseling. Photos from the event show almost no one wearing masks, and protesters standing closely together. Several chased women to their cars. Life apparently only matters when it’s a zygote—not when there’s a living, breathing human being with a history, who just happens to be making a choice you dislike, in front of you.
Every time the far right set gets a chance to protect human life, they refuse.
They won’t intervene to improve maternal mortality rates.
They won’t expand Medicaid to save the lives of women who choose not to have abortions and the babies they birth.
They don’t want women to have maternity leave, or protection against pregnancy discrimination, or safe workplaces.
They don’t want children to have access to safe daycare, quality schools, or clean water.
They believe that the thousands of lives lost to COVID are just collateral damage, to be sacrificed at the altar of corporations.
Somehow, they’re fine sacrificing human life for their own economic gain, for their own quality of life. But when a woman wants to prevent life from coming into existence for similar reasons—or because her life is in danger, she was raped, the baby is doomed to die, or for any other reason at all—she’s a murderer.
It’s not abortion clinics profiting off of death. It’s the far right.
