October 25, 2012, Washington, D.C. (LifeSiteNews.com) – Last month, video surfaced of Congressman Todd Akin describing how he was arrested while protesting an abortion clinic in the 1980s. “A bunch of us sat in front of these doors,” he told a group of supporters, “and the police gave us a ride to the free hotel for a while, and you know how it goes.”
When reporters asked about the video at a press conference on September 28, Akin confirmed the story. “Probably about 25 years ago or so I was involved in some peaceful protests. As I’ve made very clear I don’t apologize for being pro-life. I stand up for the things I believe in,” Akin told reporters.
As it turns out, Congressman Akin was actually arrested on at least four separate occasions for protesting abortion facilities between 1985 and 1987. The arrests were for criminal trespassing and resisting arrest, but he was never formally charged with any crime.
Details of one of the arrests emerged Monday, unearthed by the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way and posted on their “Right Wing Watch” blog. Yesterday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported three additional arrests, all occurring between 1985 and 1987.
According to the report by People for the American Way, Akin was arrested May 9, 1987 in front of the Reproductive Health Services abortion center. At the time, the Post-Dispatch reported that police arrested 30 protesters for blocking access to the front doors of the facility. The paper also reported that elsewhere in St. Louis County, 50 more protesters picketed two other abortion locations that day. John Ryan, then leader of Pro-Life Direct Action League, who organized the protests, told the Post-Dispatch they “were in honor of Mother’s Day.”
Details of three additional protests were revealed by the Post-Dispatch, after reporters realized the newspaper had covered his previous arrests using his given name, William Akin, which the politician went by until he entered politics in 1988 and began using his middle name, Todd.
According to the Post-Dispatch, Akin was one of nineteen protesters arrested on March 15, 1985 when they refused to leave the waiting room of an abortion facility. They were carried out by St. Louis police officers. Three weeks later Akin was again arrested at another St. Louis protest. “Police had to carry Akin into an elevator,” the newspaper reported.
And then, on April 5, 1985, Akin was arrested again, this time at Hope Clinic for Women in Granite City, as one of ten protesters who were blocking the entrance of the abortion facility.
Tactics like those used by Akin and his fellow protesters have been commonplace among nonviolent demonstrators since the civil rights movement of the 1960s, when Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested 30 times for similar acts of civil disobedience. Other notable contemporary politicians who have faced arrest for nonviolent activism include 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, who was arrested in 1971 for protesting the Vietnam War, and current Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, who was arrested alongside a 82-year-old nun earlier this year for protesting home foreclosures at a Philadelphia bank.
Although no charges have ever been filed against Akin, his foes have tried to use his 25-year-old arrest record to tie him to the radical fringe. In 1999, more than a decade after the 1987 protest, a fellow demonstrator, Tim Dreste, was convicted of “inciting violence” against abortionists with provocative websites, literature and posters. Today, Akin’s critics are doing all they can to highlight the connection between the two men.
At the time of his last arrest, Akin was preparing to run for the Missouri State House. He was elected the following year. Days before his election, he spoke to another group of protestors planning to block clinic doors. The October 29, 1988 St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Akin told the protesters “As far as I am concerned, you are the freedom fighters of America. My hat is off to you.”
Akin spent 12 years as a Missouri State Representative before making a successful run for U.S. Congress in 2000. He is currently running for U.S. Senate from Missouri. He made national headlines in August by implying that pregnancy is unlikely in cases of rape. He has since apologized for the statement. He is seeking to unseat Senator Claire McCaskill, a strong proponent of legalized abortion.
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