{"id":6420,"date":"2022-05-08T22:20:33","date_gmt":"2022-05-09T02:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tempestmag.org\/v01_2020\/staging\/?p=6420"},"modified":"2022-05-12T23:32:35","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T03:32:35","slug":"anti-choice-bigots-stopped-in-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/2022\/05\/anti-choice-bigots-stopped-in-nyc\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-choice bigots stopped in NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

A<\/span>bout 150 people showed up<\/a> outside the Basilica of St Patrick\u2019s Church in Lower Manhattan, despite heavy rain, to defend patients at a local Planned Parenthood that provides abortions. Christopher \u201cFidelis\u201d Moscinski\u2014a Catholic priest with a history of criminal charges for harrassing patients, clinics, and abortion providers across the country\u2014 has been leading \u201cWitness for Life\u201d events on Saturdays in Manhattan. Parishioners at St. Patricks may not even know that the church is supporting this action, which isn\u2019t advertised anywhere on their website. It\u2019s an important reminder that anti-choice bigots have been emboldened even in states where abortion will remain legal<\/a> if Roe<\/em> were to fall.<\/p>\n

New York City for Abortion Rights<\/a> (NYC4AR) has been leading counter-protests for years to defend the clinic and take the fight to them\u2014right outside the church. They have faced everything from arrests by the cops to physical assault by the \u201cantis\u201d, and they are often outnumbered. Today was different.<\/p>\n

Normally, the antis would have started marching toward the clinic around 9 a.m., but the counter-protest organizers announced that the police, who usually escort the procession, had determined it was \u201cunsafe\u201d to march. There were too many of us, the counter-protesters!<\/p>\n

Counter-protests like this matter because they have the potential to delay\u2014and in this case, prevent\u2014the church procession from descending on the clinic, allowing patients to arrive without facing harassment from anti-abortion extremists and to begin their procedures well before the antis arrive. It\u2019s an incentive for us all to come out again to defend the clinic in the future, and a reminder that clinic defense works.<\/p>\n

Participants drowned out the praying antis with chants like, \u201cThis church harasses patients,\u201d \u201cKeep your rosaries off our ovaries,\u201d \u201cAbortion is health care, health care is a right,\u201d \u201cThank god for abortion,\u201d \u201cPray! You\u2019ll need it. Your cause will be defeated,\u201d and \u201cFree abortion on demand, can we win it? Yes, we can!\u201d<\/p>\n

At one point, a handful of people volunteered to leave and go to the clinic, since a small group of antis had gone straight there. This smaller contingent of counter-protesters was able to block the sidewalk and protect the clinic\u2019s entrance.<\/p>\n