Progressive pro-life group launches, says 'abortion-industrial complex' puts profits over people

"Dismemberment and exploitation! Profits for a corporation!"

With that chant and impassioned speeches at the Supreme Court Friday, the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) announced its challenge to the left's prevailing narrative on women's rights. In PAAU's framing of the issue, abortion exploits the innocent, hurts the weak and benefits the rich

Founder Terrisa Bukovinac and others prefaced Saturday's Women's March by arguing that the progressive movement contradicted its stated focus on helping the marginalized. Facing boos and heckles from bystanders, PAAU speakers insisted on rights for the unborn.

"In this twisted version of progressivism, it's the rich who know best," said Bukovinac, who previously led Secular Pro-Life, Democrats for Life and Pro-Life San Francisco.

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Bukovinac added: "And they'll tell you that to be progressive, you cannot under any circumstances advocate for the most marginalized among us. But we know that abortion is not progress. Abortion is a regress to the pseudo-morality of might makes right. And as progressives, we will not stand for it. We are reclaiming progressivism for life. Wherever you find fake progressivism bought with blood money, we will be there and we will be loud!"

Both sides of the abortion debate have indicated that expanded access has financial benefits as it keeps low the costs of raising a family. Planned Parenthood receives donations from a long list of major corporations while many within the corporate sphere have expressed support for abortion. 

During her speech, activist Heather Suarez indicated that PAAU was designed to challenge the stereotype that pro-life advocates were old, White men. 

"There is a stereotype about what a pro-life activist looks like, what a pro-life activist believes, who a pro-life activist is attracted to … and for many of you, you know that that stereotype is not always true," she said.

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The National Abortion Federation (NAF) previously told Fox News that pro-life women advanced a false version of feminism. "Simply calling yourself a feminist does not suddenly give you the right to make reproductive decisions for others," Katherine Ragsdale, NAF interim president and CEO, said.

Planned Parenthood and others have maintained that abortion is a "fundamental human right" that serves a vital part of women's health care. 

But Kay Fellows, who volunteers for PAAU, presented an alternative view, arguing that unborn children and their mothers should both receive care – following an ethic of equality for all humans. Fellows says her online activism includes trying to persuade people on left-leaning platforms like Twitch.

"Left-leaning people are very pro-humanity and they are very active in talking about human rights violations," Fellows said. "It's just [that] up to this point that conversation has excluded unborn people."

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Both she and Savannah Ackerman, who leads the U.S. chapter of Rehumanize International, told Fox News that they grew up with conservative backgrounds but came to stake out more progressive stances.

"I consider myself for human rights for all human beings, which doesn't fit into either political party," she said. "So, I vote where humans don't get killed."