Operation Save America members who oppose abortion gather for prayer. It’s a well-known fable: As the Avengers of perpetuating patriarchal brutality, a group of men who openly loathe women come together to decide what pregnant women may and cannot do with their bodies. An all-male council of anti-abortion movement leaders met over the weekend in Georgia to begin a weekend of intimidating an abortion facility nearby and formulating plans to execute those who undergo abortions.
They also talked about foetal personhood laws that would restrict IVF, and criminalise a variety of pregnancy-related behaviours in addition to abortion
Every speaker at the extremist group Operation Save America’s abortion panel, which featured speakers from a variety of organisations including End Abortion Now and Georgia Right to Life, was a man, according to the Georgia Recorder, in a pattern we’ve seen quite a few times before. All-male Congressional committees have debated birth control regulations, all-male legislators have voted to outlaw abortion in Alabama, and males have even been seen wearing “WOMEN FOR KAVANAUGH” clothing. On stage right now, a group of men who identify as “pro-life” are demanding that women who choose not to become pregnant should be executed.
They advocated for new “equal protection” laws that would award personhood to embryos and threaten those who terminate unborn children with the death penalty. These laws would be modelled after a failed Georgia bill. They also talked about foetal personhood laws that would restrict IVF, and criminalise a variety of pregnancy-related behaviours in addition to abortion, which is already a horrifying result. Operation Save America’s status as an extremist group is well-known among abortion rights advocates; as Reproaction has flagged, the group’s leader was present at the Jan. 6 insurrection and called for political leaders he disagrees with to be shot.
“Their leadership and members subscribe to an oppressive patriarchal model that they intend to uphold violently. As they’ve said, ‘criminalization is pro-life,’” Shireen Shakouri, deputy director of Reproduction, told Jezebel in a statement. But, Shakouri notes, the organization is just saying “what the rest of the anti-abortion movement knows is true but often tries to cover up: They want to jail or kill people who don’t comply with their rigid, regressive gender roles, including forced birth and subjugation of LGBTQ+ people.”