Stop Patriarchy Organizing Defiant #RaiseHellJ1 Protests in

Stop Patriarchy Organizing Defiant #RaiseHellJ1 Protests in U.S. Cities as Sweeping Restrictions Force Widespread Abortion Clinic Closures on July 1

On July 1, Stop Patriarchy will take its bold and defiant stand for abortion rights and women's liberation into the streets in U.S. cities. These new laws constitute an all out assault on women, will leave 600 mile stretches in between clinics, and are part of banning abortions earlier and earlier in pregnancies. As a call to action on StopPatriarchy.org states:

"We will stand, side by side, carrying the faces of women who died from lack of safe, legal abortion. We will read their stories. We will wear faux bloody pants, representing the women who lost their lives, and those who will die, as a result of the escalating assault on this basic right. We will RAISE HELL and demand that women be treated as full human beings!"

In the context of a national surge in restrictions on abortion rights and birth control (over 330 restrictions have been introduced nationwide this year), the new laws set to take effect on July 1 are expected to close nearly half the existing clinics in Tennessee, ban the safest and most common procedures for performing an abortion after the first trimester in Kansas, and unless the Supreme Court steps in, close all but 8 clinics in the huge state of Texas.

"It is absolutely necessary for people to put themselves out there, to tell the truth, to put their bodies on the line, because that is just what is demanded of us right now. July 1 is going to be a day for people all over the country to take to the streets and demand abortion on demand and without apology, and we are not going to allow women to be slammed back in this way, treated as nothing more than breeders," says Riley Ruiz, an activist with Stop Patriarchy.

These actions come in the context of a summer long initiative to "Take Patriarchy By Storm!", which has included weekly actions drawing attention to and fighting against the many ways that women are degraded, abused, and oppressed throughout society.

Stop Patriarchy, known for their dramatic actions in support of abortion rights, recently took a national stage when activists - holding banners and huge pictures of the women who died when abortion was illegal - brought the "March for Life" in Washington DC to a halt for nearly an hour. The group also drew support from people nationwide, and much controversy, for holding protests outside premieres of "Fifty Shades of Grey", calling out the mainstreaming and acceptance of women's degradation through the film.

ENDS

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