While the military uses drones to kill terrorists, feminist activists plan to use them to kill unborn babies.
A Dutch abortion activist group, Women on Waves, recently flew “abortion drones” loaded with abortion pills across the border from Germany into Poland, where abortion is prohibited in most cases. A willing audience, feminist media applauded the move, from Jezebel demanding an “abortion drone army” in the U.S. to Dame Magazine alluding to a “drone-led abortion revolution.”
In a “symbolic act,” two Polish feminists who weren’t pregnant, swallowed the pills (mifepristone and misoprostol) once the drones landed. However, German law enforcement did not support the demonstration. Police confiscated the drones and attempted to press criminal charges even though Women on Waves claimed the delivery wasn’t prohibited by law.
That didn’t stop the media from commending the abortion feminists.
For Jezebel, Natasha Vargas-Cooper wrote a July 7 piece arguing, “Poland Has Abortion Drones. We Need Abortion Drones.”
Using all caps, Vargas-Cooper expressed her excitement. “BUT HOW FUCKING COOL IS THIS WHOLE STORY? ARE YOU READING THIS? LET’S BUILD AN ABORTION DRONE ARMY,” she wrote. “Next stop, Texas—who’s with me?”
She wasn’t alone. Since the endeavor began, feminist media have raced to cover the drone project.
“[L]et me be the first to say: Send in the drones,” wrote Robin Marty for Dame Magazine in June. Marty spoke of a “drone-led abortion revolution,” and asked, “How can we get a drone here in the U.S.?"
For Think Progress, Tara Culp-Ressler decided that, “The ‘Abortion Drone’ Is Bringing Women A Safe Way To End An Early Pregnancy,” while Bustle’s Josephine B. Yurcaba called the move a “powerful ongoing protest.”
“[The drones] could be an essential tool for providing women with access to abortion,” Refinery 29’s Meredith Clark chimed in.
“[I]t’s raising awareness of the insane and cruel obstacles women all over the world still face in the quest for reproductive autonomy,” wrote Salon’s Mary Elizabeth Williams.
She also took note of the “anti abortion sites” that are “frothing at the notion of their attempts to control women’s bodies being subverted” and the “reproductive rights opponents” that “chalk up intervention to help women as ‘stunts.’”
Except that they are “stunts,” even according to her allies. For Gawker’s Gizmodo, Kate Knibbs’s piece (“Abortion Drone Is the Best Drone”) read, “It’s a gimmick, but a worthwhile one.”
Rebecca Gomperts, founder and director of Women on Waves, expressed hope that “abortion rights groups in the United States might follow her lead someday” to RH Reality Check.
“It also has something fun about it,” Gomperts told the outlet. “Of course you’re not allowed to say ‘fun’ when you’re talking about abortion, but it’s not just negativity and heaviness and suffering. I mean, abortion is also a positive experience for a lot of people.”
This isn't the feminist media’s only project. Earlier this year, journalists hailed Satanists for deeming abortion a “religious belief.”
