Anti-abortion protesters appeared on campus earlier this month on Wednesday, October 7. Occupying the space on 15th Street adjacent to the crosswalk between Quad and the Rensselaer Union, around half a dozen protesters carried signs urging students against abortion.
While the exact origins of these protesters are unknown, their signs included website URLs leading to Created Equal, which mentions “Campus Outreach” as a function of their organization. Whether these protesters were related to the organization or simply using their site as a resource remains unconfirmed. According to their website, Created Equal is an anti-abortion organization that aims to “make abortion unthinkable.” The protesters used religion and pseudomedicine to back their beliefs, proselytizing to students walking through the high traffic area.
Among their signs was a lawn sign pointing pedestrians and drivers to a website and phone number related to an “abortion pill reversal.” According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, claims of a method to reverse medication abortions are unfounded and not backed by science. Medication abortions commonly include dosages of mifepristone, which blocks receptors for a hormone called progesterone, and later misoprostol, which induces uterine contractions. The combined use of mifepristone and misoprostol to end pregnancy through ten weeks gestation is approved by the FDA. The reversal, in contrast, is “unproven and unethical” according to ACOG. One such procedure includes injecting progesterone after taking a dosage of mifepristone in an attempt to resupply the blocked hormone. While a study claims to have continued four out of six pregnancies, it was not supervised by an institutional review board or ethical review committee, raising serious concerns regarding the ethics and accuracy of the results.
These anti-abortion protesters appeared outside of the Union at around 11 am on Wednesday. Yet, if one were to walk through the area at any time in the afternoon, the original protesters would be hard to see. In response to the anti-abortion protesters, a pro-choice, student-led counter-protest spontaneously organized right next to them. By 12 pm, the original protesters were dwarfed by nearly 30 students protesting against them. With a megaphone and cardboard signs, these counter-protesters rallied against the original protesters’ ideas, pointing students to resources such as the Planned Parenthood on Hoosick Street and encouraging bodily autonomy and a right to choose. Using their larger size to their advantage, the counter-protesters continually chanted for the original protesters to “go home.” Both sides competed for the attention of nearby students and vehicles driving through the intersection, resulting in cheers when cars honked in approval of the counter-protest's efforts. All students present maintained a respectful, peaceful environment throughout the demonstration, while still making their voices heard. By 5 pm, the original protest disbanded with the counter-protest following shortly after.
