Josh Wheeler, 10, Indianapolis, cries after his pro-life sign is thrown to the ground. Wheeler, who is here with his father Todd Wheeler, said a protester pushed him and called him names. Wheeler was comforted by anti-Trump protester Monica Hunken, above. Jan. 20, 2017. (Photo by Taylor Hartz /TWP) (Taylor Hartz/TWP)

Ten-year-old Josh Wheeler of Indianapolis was in Washington with his father, Todd Wheeler, to demonstrate against abortion outside Friday’s inauguration when they were met by a group of anti-Trump protesters at a security checkpoint around 11:30 a.m.

As the group marched by, one of the protesters shoved Josh to the ground and dismantled his banner, which had an image of an aborted fetus on it. When Josh began to cry, the protesters mocked him and called him a p---y, according to a witness, Monica Hunken.

Hunken, 35, of New York, was nearby as part of another group of anti-Trump climate justice protesters blocking entrances. For most of the morning, she said her group and Wheeler’s antiabortion group had peacefully coexisted at the spot.

When the protesters mocked the ginger-haired boy, Hunken told them to leave him alone and put her arm around him to comfort him.

“I saw someone antagonizing him and wanted to reach out,” Hunken said. “I didn’t want the hate to be the only voice that he heard.”

(Dalton Bennett,Bastien Inzaurralde,Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)

The Wheelers had been handing out pamphlets with a group of antiabortion protesters around Washington since 7 a.m. This was the boy’s first time at an inauguration, but not his first time protesting, his father said.

He is a Donald Trump supporter, but said they were not there “on any political agenda.”

“We’re here to educate,” Todd Wheeler said. “We were using our freedom of speech to defend the pro-life movement.”

He added, “The worst part was seeing someone in their 20s picking on a 10-year-old.”