The Minnesota Abortion Action Committee (MNAAC) is selling merchandise featuring an image of a burning pregnancy resource center.
“The Christian right is wrong,” the merchandise reads, with a building labeled “Anti-abortion center” in flames.
A website explains that the sweatshirts and t-shirts are part of MNAAC’s campaign to end state funding of pregnancy resource centers. In 2023, Democrats in St. Paul defunded the “Positive Alternatives Program,” which helped pregnancy centers provide material support to expecting mothers.
The MNAAC merchandise appears to depict a First Care pregnancy clinic as the one burning. First Care is a Minnesota-based clinic that provides support to pregnant mothers, free of charge.
MNAAC protested outside of one of the First Care pregnancy clinic locations on Wednesday, with activists holding signs that read, “First Care is a fake clinic.” Other signs read, “First Care hurts this community” and “I love abortion.”
“We protested outside First Care, an anti-abortion center located in the Phillips neighborhood, because communities deserve real reproductive healthcare, not fake clinics that spread lies and misinformation,” MNAAC posted on social media.
We protested outside First Care, an anti-abortion center located in the Phillips neighborhood, because communities deserve real reproductive healthcare, not fake clinics that spread lies and misinformation!#exposefakeclinics pic.twitter.com/7sAouXlzte
— MN Abortion Action Committee (@mn_aac) September 12, 2024
The group protested outside of another First Care location in May, posting on X, “F*ck a CPC.” A photo of the group protesting shows them flipping off the clinic.
Yesterday we surprised First Care, a predatory Crisis Pregnancy Center near the UMN, with a surprise protest at their door! F*ck a CPC! We deserve real healthcare! 📣 #AbortionIsHealthcare pic.twitter.com/Cxxae1TJeQ
— MN Abortion Action Committee (@mn_aac) May 11, 2024
“According to a report by The Alliance: State Advocates for Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, the harms of crisis pregnancy centers are well-documented. Minnesota is home to 90 of these fake clinics,” the MNAAC website says, referring to a 2021 report written by pro-abortion groups.
“MN is now an island of abortion access in a sea of red states,” the sales campaign for the merchandise says. “We should be spending this money on expanding access to reproductive healthcare – especially since people from around the Midwest are coming here for these services.”
MNAAC alleges that pregnancy clinics “exist to deny their patients the right to make informed decisions about abortion.”
Other shirts available for purchase through the MNAAC store say things like, “Abortion by mail. On demand. No apology!” Another shirt reads, “Abortion is healthcare.”
The group has also protested the presence of another First Care location by projecting pro-abortion messages onto the residential section of the building.
At least four pregnancy resource centers were vandalized in 2022 in the months after a draft opinion of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked. Nationally, at least 65 pregnancy centers faced similar attacks.
Hayley Feland
Hayley Feland previously worked as a journalist with The Minnesota Sun, The Wisconsin Daily Star, and The College Fix. She is a Minnesota native with a passion for politics and journalism.
