The parallels between extreme anti-abortion activists and intactivists have become the real elephant in the room. I’m not sure how “educating about the benefits of foreskin” has ended up mirroring Operation Rescue’s tactics in the 80’s and 90’s, which I fought so hard against. How did I suddenly find myself involved with intactivists, who over the last two years, began promoting the same tactics? How do the extreme pro-life activists mirror the extreme intactivists? Let’s take a look at the similarities.
On Operation Rescue’s web page, they describe their organization as “one of the leading pro-life organizations in the nation” and their activities as being “on the cutting edge of the abortion issue, taking direct action to restore legal personhood to the pre-born and stop abortion in obedience to biblical mandates” (see source below.) Operation Rescue held demonstrations at the White House, in an eerily familiar fashion as what is now seen during Genital Integrity Awareness Week in Washington D.C. The behavior escalates with every new year; from the intactivists who are now also “on the cutting edge” as they “rip off the Band-Aid.” In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed a bill into effect called F.A.C.E., the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances, to keep patients safe while entering a medical establishment to receive medical services. The pro-life demonstrators used to block the access or hold signs and SCREAM horrible thing at the women entering clinics. So, a bill was necessary to protect American women from dangerous activists who eventually ended up murdering doctors and blowing up clinics.
In an ironic twist of fate, this bill has been the saving grace for the clinics that have recently been targeted by lone wolf intactivists, who picket doctors’ offices based on speculation. It’s also the reason why police don’t take kindly to extreme protesters who don’t comply with the requests of the officers. The bill was created to keep the public safe from extreme activists and, thankfully, it does its job. Unfortunately, the law hasn’t stopped harassing phone calls and death threats, which intactivists are now making against doctors and judges. Are you seeing the similarities between the two groups yet? What we know from the history of abortion is that outlawing abortion doesn’t work, in fact in countries where abortion is illegal; there is a higher abortion rate than in countries where it is a safe and legal procedure. Education, not extreme demonstrations, is what lowers abortion rates and it will be education about the benefits of foreskin that lowers the circumcision rate in America.
I realized earlier last year that things were getting out of control within the intactivist movement. The men were becoming more and more aggressive and eventually abusive toward the women on their side when the women started to speak up about the aggression. A smattering of women have joined up with the extremism of these men. Now, we are seeing more and more “Angry Men” who are threatening the lives of doctors, nurses and even their own mothers. It’s only a matter of time before a life is lost and the term “intactivist” will carry nothing but the connotations of mentally unbalanced extreme pseudo activists.
The Case Against Intactivism 