Walking Vagina Reaps Shock and Awe from "Walk for Life" Marchers in San Francisco

Stop Patriarchy led a raucous rally at Powell and Market at the same time that anti-abortion activists, made up primarily of members of evangelical and Catholic groups, marched through the streets of San Francisco on January 23.

Pro-rights protesters greeted speakers, including medical doctors and people who lived during the time when the only abortion in the US was an illegal one, with enthusiastic cheers. The Raging Grannies were among those who said they knew what it was like before Roe v Wade; the Grannies sang pro women's rights songs and waved a hanger and knitting needle saying, "don't let this extreme measure of the past once again be in our future".

After the rally pro-choice activists faced off with the crowd of thousands of anti-choicers when they came marching down the middle of Market. Lines of riot police stood between the two sides. "Walk for Life" marchers are told to keep eyes forward and not engage with their adversaries, but some members of the anti-abortion folk giggled, pointed and stared when they witnessed a counter-demonstrator dressed as a vagina on the sidewalk.