Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
A sit-in is a form of civil disobedience where protesters enter an area and remain, despite requests to move, until their demands are met. Perhaps the best-known sit-ins occurred during the 1960s civil rights movement, where groups descended on racially segregated establishments and remained even when people spat on them or poured food and drinks over their heads.
These peaceful demonstrators were fighting for their right to be free men and women, as guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. Today, pro-lifers are using similar tactics to save babies growing in the womb. From WORLD.com (emphasis added):
At 11 a.m. on Jan. 18, five pro-life activists entered the Options for Women abortion center in Plainfield, N.J. They talked to the women in the waiting room and handed out roses with printed information about local pro-life pregnancy centers tied to the stems. Police arrived and told the activists to leave, but four of them chose to remain in the facility. Officers arrested them about an hour later.
This nonviolent demonstration was the 17th “Red Rose Rescue,” a recently developed pro-life tactic. The rescue operations draw inspiration from the abortion center blockades pro-life activists held during the 1970s and 1980s. At the time, people would try to protect unborn babies by locking arms in the hallways of abortion centers or chaining themselves to cars in front of the facilities’ doors, effectively stopping the businesses from operating for the day.
Red Rose Rescue’s abortion clinic sit-ins are different from previous ones, according to WORLD. Instead of blocking entrances and hallways, they enter the clinic and speak to women and hand out information. When the police asked one group to leave, some refused and were arrested.
Sit-ins past and present are peaceful forms of civil disobedience in the fight for freedom, and in the case of unborn babies, for life. Monica Migliorino Miller, a Red Rose Rescue demonstrator, what these sit-ins actually accomplish:
Miller said she doesn’t think many pro-life advocates would want to go back to conducting traditional sit-ins after seeing the success of the Red Rose Rescues.
“I think it is more effective in terms of getting the moms to leave,” she said. “We know that 12 women with a rescue we did in [Michigan] didn’t even go through with their abortions.”
If not for the barrier of the FACE Act, Miller said, this new and more personal form of rescue may never have emerged.
Photo credit: American Life League (Creative Commons) – Some rights reserved
