The other Sunday morning, three abortion
rights activists interrupted worship services at Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church
in Houston, TX. The protest was
apparently in response to the leaked U.S. Supreme Court draft opinion written
by Justice Samuel Alito that indicates the high court is preparing to strike
down the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion on demand
possible.
The activist group Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights posted a short video to social media of their interruption of the Lakewood Church’s service that Sunday afternoon. The video, recorded with an iPhone from a floor seat, captures the start of Osteen’s message as the congregation stands to repeat a prayer with Osteen before he begins his message. A man and a blonde woman appear in the video standing in front of the person with the phone. The woman and another woman sitting in front of her, appear to be taping Osteen with their phones as he leads the congregation. As the prayer ends, the congregation repeats “In Jesus Name” and sits down as Osteen tells the audience, “God bless you.” Then the woman directly in front of the camera hands her phone to the man beside her. The video then shows as the audience sits down, the woman remains standing and lifts her dress over her head. “It’s my body! My f-----g choice!” the woman yelled as she turned to the camera revealing green handprints on her bra with a green bandana on her underwear. “It’s my body! My choice!” she repeats as the video shows two other women who were sitting beside the woman taking off their clothes and begin chanting, “Overturn Roe, h--- no!” The video then shows the three women being escorted out of their seats by members of the church’s security team as they continue to chant. The congregation reacted with thunderous applause drowning out the three women who were also waving green bandanas.
KHOU-TV reported the women then joined about a dozen activists who were protesting outside of the church building. According to the posted video, the shocking disruption to the church’s services lasted approximately 43-seconds.
According to the pro-abortion group’s website, the Green Bandana is a symbol of abortion rights that came from Latin America. The group calls for fighting for abortion on demand and without apology. The abortion group also claims in a statement that the three women who interrupted the Lakewood Church’s services “were acting on the orientation” posted on their website which states “{P}eople in our millions must make clear, through massive non-violent resistance, that we will bring the gears of society to a grinding halt before we allow the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.”
The group also posted a tweet of a large green banner with the words “Overturn Roe? H--- No!” that they unveiled from the top of a bleacher section in Dodgers Stadium in Anaheim, CA during the Dodgers-Mets game that Sunday. On Saturday, the group tweeted a short video of activists at a protest that included a woman with a bullhorn calling for civil disobedience if Roe is struck down. “STOP the Supreme Court from overturning #RoeVWade. We need civil disobedience,” the group tweeted.
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