You’ve seen the protests: Dozens of mostly white men and women, some wearing homemade face masks, some in bright-red baseball caps that say you-know-what, holding up signs that read “Land of the free” and “Give me liberty or give me COVID-19.” They’re screaming the classics like “It’s a free country! America the free!” at state capitol buildings and even shouting offensive racial epithets at health care workers in scrubs.

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For obvious reasons, these protests bother me: I, along with everyone I know, am currently staying at home, doing my part to flatten the curve to make sure that our hospitals don’t get any more overwhelmed than they already are. But there’s another reality here that really gets me: Suddenly Trump supporters are demanding that their government butt out so that they can make decisions about their health and well-being all by themselves? Funny, I don’t think I saw these guys at the last Women’s March.

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Now, of course I don’t know whether these protesters are pro-choice or not, but I do know a couple things: The states that have been the slowest to move on crucial government-mandated social distancing guidelines have been red states. Some of the largest protests happened in states like Texas, Ohio, and Oklahoma—which just so happen to be states where Republicans have used the coronavirus to try and ban women from getting abortions. And it’s been well-reported that these protests are being organized by influential conservative funders, many of whom have close ties to the Trump administration.

A sign at a protest in Albany, New York. Barcroft Media Getty Images

Watching some of the most staunchly anti-abortion Republicans, like Congressman Jim Jordan, hail these demonstrators as heroes of freedom particularly stings. “I applaud these people for speaking up and defending liberty,” Jordan told The Atlantic. Should I look forward to receiving the same comment when I ask him about the next pro-choice rally opposing all the bills he has voted for? I won’t hold my breath.

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My message to these protestors—and more importantly, the conservative elites inciting them—is simple: If the government can’t interfere in saving you from a deadly virus, then how can you argue it should be allowed to interfere in a woman’s right to choose? This hypocrisy is bad for your brand! You can’t say you want the freedom to die but refuse women’s right to freaking live.

If we weren’t living in a dystopian novel and the human population wasn’t being decimated by a contagious disease, maybe we’d be given a lil accountability, you know, as a treat. Perhaps we would even use this crisis to reflect on the fact that it is preposterous that our country still entertains the idea that the government should be able to make women’s decisions for them. But the conservative party won’t suddenly have an epiphany that women are free-thinking, independent people because they are shameless: They use their base to defend the indefensible.



You can’t say you want the freedom to die but refuse women’s right to freaking live.

Look no further than the fact that influential wealthy conservative elites are currently enticing vulnerable people to protest a virus that’s quite literally killing them. They are willfully putting demonstrators at risk by encouraging them to do the one thing that puts them closer to death’s way: gather in large groups without any protection. This isn’t just exploitative, it’s Machiavellian.

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A demonstrator in Virginia. Tom Williams Getty Images

Sadly, none of this is even the slightest bit surprising. The GOP’s deadliest weapon is their unbridled drive to exploit their base’s deepest pain for personal profit. It happens with pretty much every cause under the sun, from immigration to climate change to health care and to, of course, reproductive rights.

And so, I’m sure there’ll be even more misguided protests over the weekend to keep me busy (i.e., screaming at my TV). And the weekend after. And probably the weekend after. Until at least the Republican party and its wealthy stakeholders encourage some other selfish, self-defeating action in the fight for “freedom.” In the meantime, maybe I’d feel better if they’d just add an asterisk to their “My body, my choice” protest signs.