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Press Release
NARAL Pro-Choice America Exposes Anti-Choice Extremists at the U.S. Capitol Attack with Five-Figure Digital Ad Campaign in Georgia
For Immediate Release: Friday, January 29, 2021
Contact: [email protected]
Georgia —Today, as anti-choice, anti-freedom activists across the country participate in the “March For Life,” NARAL Pro-Choice America released a five-figure ad buy in Georgia, part of a national ad campaign that also includes ads in Michigan, Arizona, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
The ad exposes the presence of anti-choice extremists at the 1/6/21 attack on the U.S. Capitol and the deep connections between efforts to undermine democracy and the ongoing crusade to outlaw abortion—all to block social progress and maintain white patriarchal control. To view the ad, click here.
Following the violent attempt to disrupt our democracy, NARAL Pro-Choice America revealed the many anti-choice leaders and extremists, including those with a track record of violence, who participated in the attack. March for Life canceled their planned in-person event in Washington, D.C. following this attack, instead encouraging anti-choice activists to seek out and attend local in-person marches. Other anti-choice organizations also suggested to their supporters that they show up at clinics to harass people seeking abortion care and the doctors who provide care.
NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue released the following statement:
“Once you scratch the surface, March for Life’s explanation for why they are virtual this year starts to fall apart. Invoking COVID-19 precautions falls flat when so many in their movement are leading the charge of COVID-deniers and vaccine-refusers. The truth is far more sinister and far more important: they’re afraid of their own association with the January 6th attack at the U.S. Capitol.
Now more than ever, it’s crucial we grapple with the deep and historic connections between the anti-choice movement, violence and white supremacy in this country. We cannot move forward from these dark days and defend our democracy if we continue to gloss over how ideologically aligned these movements are. Time and again, these extremists have shown that there is no low they won’t sink to if it means advancing their agenda of power and control.”
It’s no coincidence that the five members of Georgia’s Congressional delegation who voted to overturn the election—Reps. Carter, Hice, Loudermilk, Allen, and Taylor Greene—are all openly hostile to reproductive freedom. From peddling baseless conspiracies about the 2020 presidential election to promoting dangerous disinformation about abortion care (and in Taylor Greene’s case, calling for the executions of prominent Democrats), these anti-choice, anti-freedom Republican extremists are all drawing from the same playbook.
The vast overlap between the anti-choice movement and the white supremacist militants who attacked the Capitol may shock some, but it is well-documented. Anti-choice groups have spent decades honing their messaging to trigger outrage among their base, fan the flames of extremism, and incite violence.
Between 1993 and 2016, anti-choice extremists committed 11 murders and 26 attempted murders in pursuit of their agenda. Not even the COVID-19 pandemic could halt anti-choice clinic harassment; instead, extremists have continued to threaten and intimidate patients and providers, even storming and invading clinics. Rather than disavow these heinous efforts, mainstream anti-choice groups like March for Life have continued promoting the rhetoric and disinformation that inspired them.
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For over 50 years, NARAL Pro-Choice America and its network of state affiliates and chapters have fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom—including access to abortion, contraception, and paid family leave—for every body. NARAL is powered by its more than 2.5 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 7 in 10 Americans who believe every person should have the freedom to make the best decision for themselves about if, when, and how to raise a family.