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Pro-Abortion Protests Turned Violent Across the Country

Pro-abortion protesters in front of the Supreme Court / Getty Images
June 27, 2022

Pro-abortion protesters incited violence across the nation's cities in response to the Supreme Court's Friday ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Black-clad protesters on Saturday night smashed windows and sprayed graffiti on businesses in downtown Portland, according to a Portland Police Bureau news release. Protesters targeted banks, a coffee shop, and the nonprofit Mother and Child Education Center, where they smashed a window, damaged a metal gate, and graffitied a sign with obscenities.

Protesters ignored President Joe Biden's pleas for "peaceful, peaceful, peaceful" protests, instead acting on the rhetoric of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), who said Democrats will fight "ferociously" for abortion rights, and Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.), who said, "The hell with the Supreme Court. We will defy them."

Pro-abortion activists targeted pro-life offices and churches even before the Court's ruling. Demonstrators last month firebombed a pro-life office in Wisconsin and vandalized four pro-life churches in Washington State. Early this month, they also firebombed a pregnancy center in New York.

The attacks appear to have worsened since the Friday ruling, however.

Thousands of San Francisco abortion advocates on Friday shut down an intersection for 49 minutes. Protesters in Los Angeles the same day also blocked an intersection before assaulting police with projectiles, fireworks, and a makeshift blow torch. L.A. police arrested two protesters for resisting an executive officer and attempted murder of an officer. In total, rioters with the "intention of creating chaos and destruction" injured four officers, an L.A. Police Department news release said.

Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot (D.) appeared in front of a crowd and screamed, "F*** Clarence Thomas!," referring to the Supreme Court justice who wrote a forceful concurrence in Friday's case.

Police in Phoenix on Friday night deployed tear gas as protesters hit windows and kicked open the glass doors of the state Capitol building while the state Senate was in session. Officers on Saturday arrested four people who pulled down a temporary fence around the Capitol, according to Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Bart Graves.

Rioters in Washington, D.C., burned an American flag and chanted slogans such as "If we don't get it, burn it down."