After church protests, experts warn extremists may exploit abortion demonstrations

Religious leaders, governmental authorities and extremism experts say they are disquieted by a spate of incidents that took place at Catholic churches over the weekend, raising concerns about vandalism and the potential for white nationalists to exploit escalating tensions regarding abortion. What’s more, experts warn that faith-fueled right-wing extremist groups may be planning to appear at other events to challenge supporters of abortion rights. The incidents over the weekend followed days of demonstrations outside the Supreme Court and elsewhere in the wake of a leaked draft opinion penned by Justice Samuel Alito. The draft signaled the court would overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion nationwide.

Rumors circulated throughout the week that activists who support abortion rights were planning widespread protests at Catholic churches across the country. Church leaders have long stressed the tradition’s opposition to abortion and advocated against it, though recent polling indicates most U.S. Catholics support keeping abortion legal in all or most cases and an even larger majority opposes overturning Roe v. Wade. “I am one of 68% of Catholics in the United States who do not want to see Roe versus Wade struck down,” Jamie Manson, head of Catholics for Choice, said in a speech outside the Supreme Court last week. Her group staged its own mostly silent protest at Washington’s Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in January, projecting images in support of abortion rights onto the church as an anti-abortion vigil was held inside. Despite warnings, a raft of church demonstrations did not, in fact, materialize over the weekend. A small group of demonstrators donned in attire inspired by the show “The Handmaid’s Tale” briefly interrupted Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles before being escorted out by security. At least one Catholic church in Colorado was vandalized, with the phrase “My body my choice” spray-painted on the church door in red. Police are reportedly investigating it as a bias-motivated crime, otherwise known as a hate crime.