Washington, DC—On Thursday civil rights and reproductive rights groups Our Rights DC and Shut Down DC disrupted the annual fundraising banquet hosted by the Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Virginia. Seven activists registered and received invitations to the full-course banquet but did not go to donate to its forced-birth cause or support the hosts’ forced-birth message. They infiltrated the dinner to disrupt it and put hosts and attendees on notice that the fight to reclaim reproductive freedoms for everyone in every State was not going to end anytime soon.
Outside the Marriott hotel over 35 activists chanted and waved flags, banners, and signs, while Arlington Police kept them outside the hotel in the chilly air, off of its property, and on the sidewalk near the street. But that didn’t keep patrons from hearing the boisterous protest. Several groups from the banquet ventured down to photograph and take selfies with the protest group in the background. This drew into question outrage hosts expressed to right-wing Christian media outlets in response to protester’s disruption of their banquet.
The next few days, right-wing Christian media echo-chamber recoiled en masse criticizing the six disruptors (actually there were seven disruptors) who were on the guest list and invited by email. The disruptors attended as Christian guests wearing crosses and other religious garb and enjoyed a free meal. Right-wing and Christian media outlets described their outbursts as “obscene” and “vulgar.” The disruptors did use profanity and security quickly escorted them out of the banquet—one disruptor was shoved by a man at her back as she was already walking towards the exit.
The disruptors celebrated their outbursts as a big win, and agreed afterwards the main course fare of baked chicken was well served but the cheesecake desserts we’re a bit on the small side. Vincent, one of the disruptors who also displayed a handful of bread from the table at which he sat, grabbed it because he did not have time to eat before he was escorted out of the banquet, so he shared his bread with the others. Several of them mused and wondered if the lost loaf was an omen of things to come for the pro-life movement.
The disruptions were timed as jump-out popcorn actions during a speech given by Janet Durig, the Executive Director of Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center.
“Fake clinics hurt people. We held this protest to bring attention to the harm they do, and to highlight the dangerous efforts of Erin Hawley, who is actively working to ban abortion and harm queer kids,” said Sadie Kuhns of OurRightsDC.
“For every real abortion clinic in the U.S. there are at least four fake clinics. Most people probably don’t realize these crisis pregnancy centers exist right here in the DC area,” they said.
The headline speaker was Erin Hawley, wife of Josh Hawley, (R-Mo) who has drawn scrutiny for his role and support of the January 6, 2020 insurrectionists at the U.S. Capitol. “The headline speaker didn’t even show up but spoke on video and their speech was atrocious,” one of the disruptors added.
Meanwhile outside the Marriott activists chanted “Thank God for abortion!” and “Blood on your hands!” to counter critics and demonstrate they haven’t completely been claimed by godlessness. “We won’t give up this fight, healthcare is a human right,” was another chant to notify those watching from above and inside the hotel the activists would continue to show up to reclaim reproductive healthcare in States limiting or banning it as long as reproductive healthcare is being denied to anyone under the Dobbs ruling and subsequent States’ trigger laws.
A projectionist beamed a light-show of messages onto the facade of the Crystal Gateway Marriott, reading ‘Respect Existence or Expect Resistence’ and ‘Beware Toxic Political Poison.’ Several other activists blew soap bubbles with toy wands. There was also an automatic bubble maker. The ‘bubble resistence brigade’ has grown as an act of joy through resistence on a theme the activists have added to their toolkit. They blow bubbles to poke fun at claims by political conservatives in media that they are lawless, making too much noise in neighborhoods at the homes of conservative Justices, attempting to influence Supreme Court Justices, and should therefore be arrested for their actions.
Activists have come out saying such claims are not reality based but propaganda and police posted at right-wing justices’ homes have not yet arrested any of the activists for exercising their Frst-Amendment rights. Activists have consistently liaised with police to be aware of the limitations of their demonstrations.
A root purpose of the banquet action was to expose the Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center as a “fake clinic” that was part of a link of thousands of such centers across the country that does not provide reproductive healthcare options such as abortions to pregnant persons in crisis as a bonafide pregnancy clinic would provide. The Pregnancy Crisis Center network is self described as a “faith” based network.
Activists also wanted to debunk claims that centers such as Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center were apolitical—to the contrary, they said in a press release that Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center headlined Erin Hawley via video at its banquet, a lawyer with anti-choice and antii-LGBTQIA2S+ far-right-wing group Alliance Defending Freedom. Erin Hawley was centered in efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade on June 24 earlier this year. It was a long-running campaign she helped come to fruition.
ShutDownDC said in a press release that the Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center is a fake clinic—an institution that claims to provide health care to pregnant people but in actuality is run by anti-abortion extremists who use tactics including lies, coercion, and shame to pressure people out of terminating their pregnancies.“
According to Planned Parenthood website, Crisis Pregnancy Centers such as Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center “aren’t legitimate medical clinics, so they don’t have to follow HIPAA and keep information private, like most real health care providers do.”
According to the CDC, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a federal law that required the creation of national standards to protect sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent or knowledge.
The Planned Parenthood gives reputable reproductive health information while warning that “crisis pregnancy centers could even give information to other anti-abortion organizations or use it to harass you. This could be especially concerning if you live in a state with anti-abortion laws.”
Planned Parenthood gives a list of warning signs that a pregnant person has been duped by a crisis pregnancy center. “Crisis pregnancy centers don’t provide abortion or offer a full range of health care, and they won’t give you honest facts about sexual health and your pregnancy option—their goal is to spread misinformation and propaganda,” the website reads.
A database of crisis pregnancy centers can be cross checked here and here.
A locator for a Planned Parenthood near you, a reputable healthcare provider, can be found here on their site.
