Washington, D.C. : 2 protesters arrested after allegedly writing ‘Black Pre-Born Lives Matter’ in chalk on sidewalk
The antiabortion group says its First Amendment rights were violated
Two anti-abortion protesters were arrested on Saturday outside a Washington, D.C., Planned Parenthood facility after police said they chalked “Black Pre-Born Lives Matter” on the sidewalk outside the facility, a report said.
The Washington Post reported that the Students for Life of America, an antiabortion group, led a protest of about 24 people at a small rally. The two individuals arrested were identified in the report as Erica Caporaletti, 22, and Warner De Priest, 29.
The group plans to sue Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, and claims that the city violated their First Amendment rights. The report pointed out that Bowser approved and commissioned in June a mural that read, “Black Lives Matter,” near the White House.
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The report said the two were charged with defacing public or private property.
Conservatives on social media were critical of the city and compared D.C.’s response at the Planned Parenthood protest to its response to anti-police protesters in recent weeks.
Alaina Gertz, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Department, told the Washington Times that Students for Life of America obtained a permit to hold the rally, but not to paint the street.
“MPD did not issue a permit to paint a message on the street,” she said in an email to the paper. “MPD issues permits to assemble. Any markings on the street would have to be permitted by the DC Department of Transportation.”
An estimated 61.6 million abortions have been performed in the U.S. since the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, with nearly 20 million abortions of unborn Black babies. The Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights, reported that Black women made up 28 percent of the country’s abortions in 2014, despite the fact that Blacks make up about 13 percent of the country’s population.
Kanye West’s recent bombshell interview with Forbes magazine, in which he announced a presidential bid, turned his back on President Trump and criticized Joe Biden, also reignited an old debate about the abortion industry’s controversial roots in the Black community.
