The anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion Concerned Women for America held their 40th anniversary gala this September at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., with Vice President Mike Pence as the keynote speaker. The advocacy group attempts to bring their version of “biblical principles” to the United States. This includes discriminating against LGBTQ people by claiming they should not raise children and spreading worrisome anti-abortion rhetoric in the name of “salvation.”

Reproaction showed up with 14 awesome activists donning our Stop Prosecuting Abortion t-shirts and signs, along with our banner reading “Abortion Bans: Grab ‘Em by the Pussy” featuring the faces of President Trump and his most recent Supreme Court pick, Brett Kavanaugh. For a group called concerned women, it’s ironic they aren’t concerned about supporting a president who has openly bragged about sexually assaulting women, who has put someone who faced credible accusations of sexual assault on the highest bench. In fact, in 2016 when the now infamous leaked tapes from Access Hollywood surfaced featuring Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women, Penny Nance, the CEO of Concerned Women for America, stated “who’s going to protect us from him?,” meaning Trump.

At another point during the 2016 campaign trail, when Trump stated that “there has to be some form of punishment” for women who have abortions, Nance falsely said, “No one in the pro-life perspective thinks it’s a good idea to imprison women.” Now, Penny Nance and other ‘concerned women’ applaud President Trump and his administration, openly supporting a man who admits to sexually assaulting women and implied he wants women to be thrown in jail for having abortions.

We took action to hold them accountable, protesting on both sides of the attendee’s entrance so they couldn’t ignore our message. We also made sure Vice President Mike Pence saw our banner as his motorcade left the building.

Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) was in attendance at the gala as well. Previously, she told Reproaction she couldn’t comment when asked about the case of Purvi Patel, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in Indiana for self-managing her own abortion. While Patel was eventually released, she should have never been criminalized.

If these leaders were really ‘concerned’ that people are being jailed for abortion, they’d be able to at least comment on this chilling case where a woman actually was jailed for abortion in gross violation of her human rights. The hypocrisy of the ‘pro-life’ movement would be laughable if it wasn’t so horrifying. We’ll continue showing up and demanding they stop prosecuting abortion.