Activism, Uncensored: Abortion Rights Protests Continue
Activism, Uncensored: Abortion Rights Protests Continue
A comprehensive portrait of what street activism has looked like since Dobbs v. Jackson
“Don’t give us that whole vote out fascism bullshit!” one masked protester yelled into a bullhorn. “Riots work!”
In an example of the crisp verité journalism that’s becoming their trademark, Ford Fischer and his News2Share crew spend thirteen unsettling minutes capturing the range of street responses to the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
From a man in an Ichabod Crane beard spinning in delight and singing, We are dancing on the grave of Roe versus Wade!, to a couple of cops appearing to laugh at a sign reading IF PREGNANCY IS GOD’S WILL THEN SO IS ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION, to my personal favorite, Ford interviewing a weirdly impassive Guido Reichstadter by speakerphone as the protester stood spewing green smoke atop an arch of the Fredrick Douglass Memorial Bridge, News2Share captured all sides at their most profane, eccentric, and ecstatic.
As a symbol of America’s dialogueless politics, the abortion issue is unparalleled. There is nothing to discuss, only invective and political combat. Democrats are taking abuse as traitors to both sides: symbols of Roe’s defenders to the pro-life crowd, but despised among Antifa types (who make an appearance here) as the party that won’t pack the court or institute a federal ban to protect it. “One consistent theme was dissatisfaction with Democratic lawmakers, and the system as a whole,” Ford deadpans.
All that and more, from the best shooters of street political action in the business.
The most depressing part of this is that so many activists (and most citizens as well) have no comprehension of what the ruling was about. It was not a statement about whether abortion was right or wrong, it was whether an activist court overreached in making it legal on a federal basis in 1972.
Most of the states where these protests are occurring are not impacted at all by the ruling.
Unfortunately, our media either doesn't understand the ruling as well, or they do, and instead of being journalists, choose to paint it in a way to create as many clicks as possible, and encourage divineness amongst the readers.
The two extremist factions on abortion - the camp that wants abortion on demand any time prior to labor, and the no abortion ever under any circumstances - are the noisiest and least significant in terms of actual numbers. Yet they define the terms of debate, which is insane. And whatever compromise between those two poles is made, neither end will be happy. Tough.
The law that struck down Roe didn't even end abortion, it limited it to 15 weeks - the most common legal limit in Europe. Funny how the left doesn't want to be like Europe on that.