As hundreds of men wearing suits marched down Commonwealth Avenue on Saturday morning, a teary-eyed Elizabeth Schwartz struggled to explain the scene to her five-year-old son while the two waited at the bus stop.
“Some women can’t go to the doctor when they need to. That’s what’s so sad,” Elizabeth said to her son, Samuel. “When you’re sick, Mommy takes you to the doctor. When women need to go to the doctor, in some places, they’re not able to go anymore.”
Samuel looked up at his mother and said, “Everybody can go to the doctor.” Elizabeth said he was right.
The third annual National Men’s March to Abolish Abortion and Rally for Personhood began Saturday morning at the Planned Parenthood on Commonwealth Avenue in Allston. It marched through Boston University’s campus and continued until it reached the Parkman Bandstand in the Boston Common.
The Men’s March coordinates national events across U.S. cities, gathering men around an “abortion killing center” and encouraging members to bring their sons to the march.
As he spoke to a crowd at Boston Common, Men’s March Co-Founder Jim Havens was met with applause from supporters and disruption from counter-protestors, who yelled back at him and shook the metal barricades separating the two groups.
Among the counter-protesters were the Boston Clowns, who wore wigs, red noses and clown makeup. They were joined by the Boston Area Brigade of Activist Musicians, who played music and donned clown attire as well.
Juliana Wiele, one of the clowns in the protest, said the clowns were meant to counteract the pro-life march in a lighthearted way that avoids spewing hate. Wiele said she is “actually a clown” and is “not just dressed up for this,” and she saw an opportunity to “bring some activism into [her] clowning.”
“The idea is to drown their negativity out with whimsy and joy and loudness,” Wiele said.
The number of counter-protesters grew as the march went on. The more protesters heckled the anti-abortion marchers by calling them “nazis” and “fascists,” the higher the tension grew.
Philip Nikon, a pro-life marcher who held a poster with a picture of a dead fetus that read “Please Stop Abortion,” said the counter-protesters had “almost no respect.”
Nicolas Ruiz, another pro-life marcher, said the fighting is “not coming from us” when counter-protesters respond to their demonstrations.
“Our Lord Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek when we’re insulted, when we’re being oppressed,” Ruiz said.
While marchers prayed at Planned Parenthood before the Men’s March began, Jill Sheridan shouted chants into a megaphone. Sheridan, a teacher and mother of four, said she thinks it is important to be heard even if she is not “changing these men’s minds.”
“Maybe there’s a little girl or a young woman or someone on the street who hears somebody speaking up for her rights,” Sheridan said. “It’s important to be a voice that other people hear so that they know they’re not alone in their thinking, so the louder, the better.”
The march reached a standstill at Kenmore Square. Counter-protesters blocked the Men’s March for almost an hour, chanting “Who do you respect? Who do you serve?” and “Pro-life, that’s a lie. You don’t care if people die.”
Boston Police Department officers, wearing riot gear, arrived and created a barrier between the two groups during the encounter. Nine people were arrested at the scene.
Sheridan said the Men’s March was “looking for a reason to become violent,” adding she was repeatedly pushed by one marcher in a cowboy hat and hit in the head with a flag by another.
BU students and faculty walking around campus witnessed the march and counter-protests parading through Comm. Ave.
Zachary Bos, president of UAW Local 2324, which represents higher-education staff at BU, said the union has “unified support across the membership” in opposition to abortion bans and “neo-fascism.”
“It has been widely said that when fascism comes to the United States, it will come wrapped in a flag, carrying a cross,” Bos said. “It has arrived. It is unequivocally here.”
Shana Weitzen, BU senior and the president of BU Students for Reproductive Freedom, said she has seen the Men’s March every year since she was a freshman and feels the walk it takes down a college campus is “threatening.”
“Their ideology is very dark,” Weitzen said. “There’s definitely some undertones of violence against women, of submissiveness about women in general.”
Edward Reidy, a Boston resident, said he felt the pro-life cause was worthy of support due to his personal ties to the abortion issue. He’s known three women that had abortions and experienced negative consequences due to them.
“They had depression, regret, they weren’t healthy, they didn’t like it, they lived with guilt,” Reidy said. “It’s up to the woman, but then it’s really not, because there’s two people involved.”
The Men’s March said its pro-life stance is based on the belief that life begins at conception, viewing abortion as the taking of a human life. Many of the marchers also incorporate religious beliefs into their pro-life movement, with marchers reciting prayers such as the “Hail Mary.”
“I’m just being a witness and standing up for life, for the little lives and the wombs of mothers,” said Brother Louis Marie, a clergy member who works at the Immaculate Heart of Mary School in Harvard.
Carrie Miller, a pro-choice protester, silently held up a sign reading “Keep your rosaries off our ovaries” during the Men’s March prayers outside Planned Parenthood.
“There are so many Catholic and Christian allies to this cause who do believe in reproductive freedom, who do believe in women’s rights,” Miller said. “Unfortunately, these [men] are not those.”
John Medlar led religious chants during the Men’s March and said he believes there is a common ground between pro-life and pro-choice arguments — “we want to save as many lives as possible.”
“We should be doing everything possible to save both lives, to care for the woman and also make sure that the child has a good chance at life,” Medlar said. “Whenever we get to the point where a woman feels that the best chance that she has is to kill her unborn child, we’ve already failed.”
Standing at the bus stop with Samuel, Elizabeth Schwartz reflected on the gender makeup of the Men’s March. At that moment, religion held a different role for her.
“It makes me mad that they’re all men,” Elizabeth said. “I have two boys, so I pray to God I raised them the right way.”
Joanna Malvas contributed reporting.
