Opponents of abortion arrived early on Saturday, Sept. 26, to Bronx Abortion GYN Services at 2070 Eastchester Road in the Indian Village section of the Bronx, but what was expected to be a single-issue protest quickly evolved into an all-out debate on a whole range of political topics and the upcoming presidential election.

A handful of anti-abortion demonstrators quietly held signs across the street from the location while a separate group of nuns prayed a short distance away outside the clinic. A third group of pro-abortion activists stood in front of the clinic’s entrance, and provided safe passage to those entering, as police officers sat in a nearby vehicle on Eastchester Road observing all three groups.

The anti-abortion protesters are members of a national organization called “Forty Days for Life,” and were continuing a forty-day, daily protest which they said began on Sept. 23, and which was also taking place simultaneously in other locations across the country. The daily protest is due to continue until Nov. 1.

One unidentified, anti-abortion protestor explained, “Forty days for Life is an organization that comes together twice a year to fast and pray peacefully in front of the abortion clinics for the end of abortion, and it’s a period of forty-days, 24-hours, seven days a week for forty days with the hope and prayer and diligence that each abortion clinic would be closed down permanently to end abortion altogether.” She added, “Why? Because we want to save the lives of the unborn.”

The members of the Texas-based organization said they planned to continue holding similar demonstrations outside of the Eastchester Road clinic in the future, as well as at Dr. Emily Women’s Health Center on Southern Boulevard in the Longwood section of the Bronx.

As discussions between the protesters and Norwood News continued, one woman who was standing briefly with the nuns, and who was wearing a white lab coat drenched in fake blood, took the conversation in the direction of education and gender.

“You’re voting for children in the first and second grade to be told they can switch their genders because that’s what they’re taught,” she said, adding that she was a former teacher at the Department of Education.

Referring to the children in first and second grade she had spoken of, she continued, “Instead of just learning reading, writing and arithmetic, now you have got to think, do I want to continue being a man?”

As the conversation progressed, the woman then steered the discussion towards race and the criminal justice system, saying, “So, you also want to support more Black people being locked up in prison? Because that’s what [former Vice President Joe] Biden pushed. That’s what [former President Bill] Clinton pushed, so that’s what you’re voting for.”

The woman appeared to be referring to historical criminal justice policy under former President Bill Clinton in the 1990s when incarceration rates among Black people were indeed very high. The First Step Act was a law passed in 2018. However, it had broad bipartisan support, was approved by Congress and was subsequently signed into law by President Donald Trump. It rewards certain prisoners who exhibit good behavior with reduced sentences, and also reorientates criminal justice toward rehabilitation rather than punishment. In reference to the law, the woman said, “Trump helped a lot of Black people to get out of prison.”

Former Vice President and current Democratic Party presidential nominee, Joe Biden, has outlined his latest policy approach to criminal justice where he advocates for additional funding for education, addiction and mental health services as a way to combat the reasons why some people commit crime.

According to an article in the Washington Post, within the first year of enactment, more than 3,000 federal prisoners were released based on changes to the “good-time credits calculation formula under the First Step Act.” Norwood News has not independently verified the racial breakdown of those released.

The woman then went on to praise what she saw as the president’s commitment to permanently funding historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). According to Inside Higher-Ed, the president signed what was, once again, legislation that already had broad bipartisan support. Dubbed the FUTURE Act, the U.S. Congress passed the law in December 2019, and made permanent $255 million in annual STEM funding for minority-serving colleges, including roughly $85 million which was specifically allocated to HBCUs.

In conclusion, in reference to the upcoming election, the woman said, “I’m Black, but the fact that I’m Black does not mean, like Biden said, if I’m Black I’ve got to vote for him.” She added, “I researched. I don’t have to vote for him because I’m Black. We’re not talking about what Trump said. We’re talking about what he did – now that, you can believe.”

A second demonstrator, an African-American man, also defended Trump, saying, “Most politicians don’t do anything. He actually does things. Yeah, he does what he says he’s going to do, whether you like him or not. Obama said, “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. That was a lie.”

According to Politifact, former President Barack Obama clarified his remarks about Obamacare by saying people could keep their plan if it hadn’t changed since Obamacare passed. “Now, if you have or had one of these plans before the Affordable Care Act came into law and you really liked that plan, what we said was you can keep it if it hasn’t changed since the law passed,” Obama later said.

According to Bronx Abortion GYN Services website, 1.3 million pregnancies are aborted each year in the United States.

Calls for comment to both the Bronx Abortion GYN Services and Dr. Emily Woman’s Health Center were not immediately returned.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.