Boston police say over a dozen people arrested during an anti-abortion march in Boston on Saturday that was met with counterprotesters are expected to appear in court Monday.
Police had originally said nine arrests were made, but the official police report released Monday said 17 people were arrested on various charges:
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- Julia Coughlin, 26, of Portland, Maine, for unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct
- Jennifer Adams, 22, of Natick, Massacusetts, for unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct
- Joseph McDonald, 26, of Weymouth, Massachusetts, for disorderly conduct
- Gary Ervin, 28, of Boston, Massachusetts, for disorderly conduct
- Aidan Burke, 24, of Boston, Massachusetts, for disorderly conduct
- Charles McDonald, 21, of Amherst, Massachusetts, for unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct
- Laurel Clapp Fox, 25, of Amherst, Massachusetts, for unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct
- Sofia Rose, 24, of Boston, Massachusetts, for unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct
- Mitchell Lawson, 27, of East Providence, Rhode Island, for unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct
- Meiya Sparks Lin, 24, of Boston, Massachusetts, for unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct
- Waylon Linn-Adams, 22, of Brattleboro, Vermont, for unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct
- Lakes Levine, 18, of Needham, Massachusetts, for unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct
- Bailey Olmstead, 26, of Boston, Massachusetts, for unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct
- Christopher Jacques, 40, of Gorham, Maine, for unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct
- Riley Dowell, 24, of Portland, Maine, for unarmed assault
- Oliver Pover, 29, of Somerville, Massachusetts, for unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct
- Grace Lotti, 23, of Somerville, Massachusetts, for unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct
All 17 were released on bail Saturday night. Jacques, Levine, Olmstead and Joseph McDonald are expected to be arraigned Monday in Boston Municipal Court and the rest in Roxbury District Court.
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The National Men's March to Abolish Abortion and Rally for Personhood traveled down Commonwealth Avenue from outside a Planned Parenthood clinic near Boston University to the Common on Saturday morning. The group has held events in Boston before, as well as in other cities across the country.
The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts called the counterprotest a direct attack on their first amendment rights and urged the Massachusetts Attorney General and the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office to press criminal charges.
Hundreds of people walked Commonwealth Avenue in the anti-abortion march, The Boston Globe reported, and a large group of men, many in the organizers' dress code of suits, was seen at the rally at the Parkman Bandstand at the Common. Police, some in riot gear with batons in hand, manned barricades, behind which there was a large group of counterprotesters.
The supporters of reproductive freedom were wearing big red noses and playing circus music to mock the group's message.
"Abortion is health care and the church and the state have no business telling women what to do with their bodies,” one female counterprotester said.
According to the police report, the rally was a permitted event that included "several hundred individuals." They said the group opposing the original rally at one point blocked the inbound lane of Commonwealth Avenue, which was on the path of the permitted march.
"Upon the convergence, each group was screaming/shouting at each other and the opposing (blocking group) at times turning their rage at officers by threatening them, screaming fighting words and attempting to agitate them," the report read.
After some time, the second group was directed by the incident commander to cease blocking the path of the permitted march and to disperse peacefully. When they refused, officers began to physically attempt to move the crowd off of the street to clear a path for the march.
"This unruly crowd collectively began pushing back at officers, elevating their disorderly and unlawful activity to assaultive," the police report said. "This crowd created an extremely hazardous and offensive condition for officers and the individuals of the Men's Rights Group who were attempting to pass by."
Police said they were eventually able to gain enough control to allow the march to proceed through Kenmore Square, but not without making arrests.
After the rally, participant John Ribeiro, of Winthrop, called it a "wonderful day."
"The men came out to support the women that are facing unplanned pregnancies and we're here to speak for the unborn," Ribeiro said, adding, "There's a man attached to every single abortion out there, and most women who have an abortion regret it, and they say if one person stood up for them and told them that would help them with the abortion, that they wouldn't have had it."
A recent study in the journal Social Science & Medicine, however, found that, of 667 women who had abortions, nearly all felt they'd made the right decision five years later, even if it had been hard at the time.
The Supreme Court two years ago ended the constitutional protection for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years in a decision by its conservative majority to overturn Roe v. Wade. President-elect Donald Trump has painted abortion as an issue for states to decide, but his election raises the prospect of the federal government ending policies that allow abortion to continue even in states where it's legal.
