WASHINGTON—Hours after sundown on Tuesday, hundreds of pro-abortion protesters remained outside the Supreme Court, but many struggled to explain the protest’s goal.
A little after 8 p.m., about 300 protesters still chanted, marched, played music, and stood outside the U.S. Supreme Court.
A few protesters said they were federal employees who said they weren’t legally allowed to be part of political protests.
“I cannot give you my full name. I work a federal job,” one said.
All the protesters The Epoch Times interviewed were from relatively near Washington. Many had gone to the protest immediately after work.
“I got home and made the sign and came straight,” said nurse Anna Mason.
Most of the protesters looked young. At times, they chanted obscene slogans.
Besides the classic “My body, my choice” chants, their chants included “[Expletive] Alito,” “[Expletive] the system, abort the whole [expletive] system,” “Pro-life is a lie, you don’t care if we die,” and “[Expletive] the court, [expletive] the law, we will make the system fall.”
A loudspeaker played “[Expletive] Tha Police,” and songs with sexually explicit lyrics.
The chalk messages they left also relied on expletives. “[Expletive] 12,” “[Expletive] the Court,” “[Expletive] Amy,” and “[Expletive] everyone who stood by silently” all appeared on the pavement.
Taika, 22, said abortion was important to her because if she had a child, she would commit suicide.
“If I had a child right now, I would probably kill myself and fall into financial ruin,” she said.
Taika said that “everything” was interconnected to abortion and that her low-wage job made it impossible for her to support a child.
“If I happen to fall pregnant, they want me to continue to be pregnant and potentially damage my body for the rest of my life,” she said.
“Pregnancy itself is also kind of a disability,” said Renee Schmitt, a college student. “It’s an extreme medical procedure when you’re going through it yourself.”
Few pro-life protesters appeared. According to several pro-abortion protesters, a maximum of 20 to 30 pro-life protesters were present.
At one point, a pro-life protester ran away after pro-abortion protesters attempted to take his sign. When he ran, the crowd cheered.
Although the protest was high on obscenity and outrage, most protesters seemed low on explanations for its purpose.
Most of the protestors interviewed by The Epoch Times spoke in a patchwork of slogans. Protestors often used phrases like “systemic,” “intersectionality,” “people of color,” and “interconnected” to connect the abortion protest to racial issues, the economy, and other situations. Their tone often sounded rehearsed.
Supreme Court justices have lifelong terms that hypothetically make them independent from public opinion.
But many of the protesters interviewed said that protests could change the Supreme Court’s actions.
“The Supreme Court is supposed to have taken an oath to rule in what they believe the majority wants and why they will benefit most from,” said Mason.
But justices don’t take oaths to follow majority rule.
“We want to make our voices heard before that opinion is finalized,” Schmitt said.
“A majority of the Supreme Court justices are white,” said Taika. “They no longer represent their constituents.”
But Supreme Court justices don’t have constituents because they aren’t elected.
Among those interviewed, the one with the most coherent plan was also the most politically radical.
Camilla, a Washington resident and anarcho-Marxist, explained Marxist doctrine. To fight conservatism, people must end families of one man and one woman who have children, Camilla said.
“I believe that ending abortion is part of a strategy of preserving a heterosexual nuclear family because that is a site of ideological control,” Camilla said. “I think this conflict is not an illusion or a misunderstanding.”
Anarcho-Marxists value abortion because it furthers the destruction of the family, Camilla said.
Camilla didn’t say how Marxism would replace families of men and women but noted that many capitalist societies today have declining birth rates.
“Capitalism has failed at that question. As far as I understand, most highly industrialized nations have low, very low birth rates, sometimes below replacement,” Camilla said.
Camilla said the only way to change America was through Marxist revolution, but still attended the protest to discuss anarcho-socialist views with people who seemed interested.
“I’m a revolutionary, communist Marxist,” Camilla said. “I do not believe that the pathway to individual freedom and safety is going to be through the preservation of America as a country.”
Camilla said that a few people were convinced.
“We have to understand protest, as not something which occurs between the protesters and someone else, but something that occurs inside the protest,” Camilla said.
