Fight Back! News

News and Views from the People's Struggle

MNAAC

Protesters rally against fake health clinic First Care in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis.  | Staff/Fight Back! News

Minneapolis, MN – On September 10, 40 people rallied to protest predatory anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy center” First Care. This marks the fifth protest of a First Care facility organized by the Minnesota Abortion Action Committee (MNAAC) as part of their campaign to expose the deceptive and manipulative practices of these facilities.

During the protest, Jay Belsito, a member of UnRestrict MN and Gender Justice, recalled their experience with an anti-abortion center as a pregnant teenager in Saint Paul, Minnesota. They were misled about how far along they were in their pregnancy and given fake ultrasound images, a common tactic used to prevent people from making informed choices about their bodies and their health.

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By Robyn Harbison and Kristen Bledsoe

Minneapolis, MN—On June 13, members of the Minnesota Abortion Action Committee (MNAAC) and their allies gathered for an emergency rally after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on mifepristone. Mifepristone is one of the two drugs commonly used for medication abortion. The ruling affects women and others’ healthcare across the entire country.

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By staff

Milwaukee, WI – The Coalition to March on the RNC is hosting a national online event titled “All Out for the March on the RNC!” The program takes place on Monday, June 24, at 8 p.m. Eastern time (7 p.m. Central, 6 p.m. Mountain, 5 p.m. Pacific). You can register to receive the Zoom link here: tinyurl.com/marchrnc

The event will feature speakers reporting on their organizing in different movements, giving updates on the Coalition's work, and explaining mobilization plans.

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By Robynne Johnson

Saint Paul protest at Trump campaign stop

St. Paul, MN – On Friday, May 17, a crowd gathered outside the annual GOP Lincoln Reagan Dinner to protest the attendance of former U.S. President Donald Trump, sending the messages to defend reproductive rights, no to a Muslim ban, and of legalization for all.

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By staff

Reproductive rights protest at fake abortion clinic.  | Fight Back! News/staff

Minneapolis, MN – On Friday, May 10, members of the Minnesota Abortion Action Committee (MNAAC) and their supporters protested outside of First Care Pregnancy Center, an anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy center” known for using deceptive tactics and spreading medical disinformation about abortion.

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By staff

Pro-reproductive rights protesters at Vice President Harris campaign event oppose the White House sponsoring the genocide in Gaza. | Fight Back! News/staff

Saint Paul, MN – On March 14, operating on short notice, organizers with the Minnesota Abortion Action Committee (MNAAC), workers from the reproductive justice movement and their supporters held an emergency protest outside a private event where Vice President Kamala Harris was set to speak on reproductive freedom.

Protesters gathered outside the venue with banners and signs, chanting to passersby in an effort to call attention to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, its particular impact on Palestinian women and girls, and Vice President Harris’s role in funding Israel’s military operations.

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By Rachel Storm

Protesters rallied in front of Abria Pregnancy Resources in North Minneapolis, demanding its removal from the neighborhood. | Fight Back! News/Ashley Taylor-Gougé

Minneapolis, MN – On January 28, over 60 protesters rallied in front of Abria Pregnancy Resources, a so-called “crisis pregnancy center,” or CPC, to demand its removal from the Northside neighborhood.

Protesters held signs and banners demanding an end to fake clinics, while chanting “Pass more bills, secure our pills!” and “Fund abortion, make it free, fuck the right and CPCs!” Passersby expressed their support vocally and by honking their car horns.

Abria, one of four anti-choice “crisis pregnancy centers'' located in Minneapolis, utilizes deceptive tactics and medically inaccurate information to pressure pregnant people out of getting an abortion. Most of the funding for CPCs comes directly from right-wing evangelical backers.

CPCs set up shop in low-income, predominantly Black neighborhoods like the Northside, knowing that pregnant people seeking abortion resources would have nowhere else to turn to.

Jae Yates, speaking for Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar (TCC4J), referring to Abria’s predatory practices, said, “This isn’t about human rights, it's about controlling people’s behavior and controlling their bodies and trying to force them to conform to a system of religion that they may or may not believe in.”

Samantha Alsadi, from the Anti-War Committee, spoke of her own personal experience with a CPC when she was seeking abortion resources. “I instantly felt unwelcomed,” Alsadi said, “but didn’t know what else to do. The staff assured me that everything I said to her would remain confidential and under no circumstances would anything I say to her be revealed to anyone else, but here she was telling someone else, getting the police involved, and calling my parents.”

Aldadi continued, “They manipulate people by portraying themselves as some resourceful place someone can go to for help, when all the while they’re only there to scare and coerce people into making decisions the facility wants them to make.”

“Black people have historically chosen abortion as a means to protect from material conditions. As early as when Black people were considered property Black mothers performed their own abortions in an attempt to protect unborn children from enslavement,” another speaker on behalf of TCC4J said. She told of her mother’s experience: “No one explained the health risks to her, the emotional responsibility, the vulnerability, no one explained abortion to her as anything more than a sinful option. She deserved more and that is another reason why I stand here today to fight.”

Alé Guzman, a member of the MN Abortion Action Committee, spoke to the way CPCs drain community resources, saying, “The physical space they use can be utilized a hundred times over for better capacities than a fake reproductive healthcare clinic. This could've been a community bodega, this could’ve been a family's source of income, future and dream. Yet Abria takes up space where they are not needed: shame on you!”

This protest against Abria Pregnancy Resources was organized by the MN Abortion Action Committee and the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar.

#MinneapolisMN #WomensMovement #ReproductiveRights #MNAAC #TCC4J

By Autumn Lake

Supporters of reproductive and womens rights took to Mayday Plaza to demand the Supreme Court uphold the existing status of the drug Mifepristone. | Fight Back! News/staff Olivia Crull

Minneapolis, MN – 30 supporters of reproductive rights rallied at May Day Plaza on January 6 to demand that the Supreme Court uphold the existing status of the drug mifepristone.

On December 13, 2023, the United States Supreme Court agreed to review a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals 5th Circuit. If upheld, the lower court ruling would only allow access to the drug via direct prescription from a doctor – preventing online ordering, mail delivery, and pharmacy dispensing of abortion pills. It would also restrict the time to access pills from ten weeks to seven weeks.

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By staff

MNAAC counter-protest of Pro-Life Action Ministries’ "40 Days for Life" vigil in Saint Paul, Minnesota. | Fight Back! News/Olivia Crull

St. Paul, MN – On Sunday, November 5, members of the Minnesota Abortion Action Committee held a rally, decorated cars with signs, flags, and written slogans before driving the streets of Saint Paul, and then rallied again in front of a so-called “vigil for the unborn” organized by Pro-Life Action Ministries, a Minnesota-based anti-choice religious group.

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By Fa‘aumu Kaimana

Students wrap their arms around one another with mouths open, chanting. In the background a sign that has devil ears on a portrait of Amy Coney Barrett can be seen.

Minneapolis, MN – On Tuesday, October 16, a group of students and community members rallied on the steps of Northrop Hall at University of Minnesota. They were there to protest U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett at the annual donor-funded Law School public lecture.

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