“Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence.” Thoreau’s piece on Civil Disobedience has inspired many great activists around the world. From Gandhi to Martin Luther King Junior, they casted their whole influence on issues of inequality and, in turn, inspired other individuals to continue their work of improving the government. A recent issue that many activists have been concerned about is the right to an abortion. In 1973, Roe v. Wade was a legal case about if criminalizing abortion violated a woman’s constitutional right of privacy, the fourteenth amendment. The Supreme Court decided that women had “the fundamental right to the procedure” by 7-2. When Joan Andrews first heard the final judgement, she said, “I cannot express my shock and horror with the abortion decision.” Thus, she made plans to protest against the legalization of abortion. On March 26, 1986, Andrews attempted to pull out the electrical cord of a suction abortion machine in an empty procedure room at the Ladies Center in Pensacola Florida. She was then seized by the police and spent 6 months in prison as pre-trial. After the trial, she was convicted of resisting arrest without violence and burglary and was supposed to be sentenced to two and a half years jail time. The court tried to get her to sign a probation agreement to stop her from protesting but she refused so the judge gave her a five year prison term instead.
Even in prison, Joan Andrews never supported or reaped the benefits of a government that supported abortion. She refused “all medical care” unless it was a Catholic hospital because she knows that “they have not participated in the killing of babies.” This was Andrews way of trying to stand with the unborn children. In Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience, he pointed out that those who have experienced injustice take action, but the most powerful family “who has experienced little [injustice] in his own person” does not see the necessity in fighting against the unjust laws. Andrews tries to empathize with the unborn children by sacrificing her own possessions which is one of the reasons why she understands the injustice. She commented on her attempt to pull out the plug of the abortion machine and says that “this is for my own sins and for the sins of our nation” and believes that she is doing “God’s work.” She said that she was “benefiting from the system” so she has refused “allegiance to the State” and broke the law at the abortion clinic as a “penance.” Furthermore, she explained that she went into the abortion clinic because she was trying to make a statement to the government about the legalization of abortion. The goal of civil disobedience is to catch the attention of the government and tell them that they are promoting an immoral act. Also, she stated that she was “less afraid of dying than of doing nothing.” To some extent, what Thoreau believed citizens of a democracy should do is to let their lives “be a counter-friction to stop the machine.” Ever since her first act she led the resistance to abolish the abortion policy.
Police officers and government officials have tried to break her spirits so she cooperates with the government. In the Broward Correctional Institute, which is Florida’s most secure prison for women, officers did a “violent and abusive strip-search” on Andrews. She got bruises and cuts from the officers and said that it felt like an “attempted rape.” Florida’s secretary of state’s general counsel intended for Andrews to be frightened and forced to cooperate. Yet, this just made Andrews believe even stronger that the government needed to stop abortions. Furthermore, Judge William Anderson, who sentenced Andrews to five years in prison, thought of Andrews civil disobedience as an act of terrorism. Anderson’s definition of a terrorist was anyone who believed strongly in what they do and believe it is justified in their actions. However, Thoreau would think of that definition of Andrews’ anti-abortion movement as a “peaceable revolution” instead. No blood was shed and Andrews was just trying to do what she believed in which was to “prevent murder.” Many people had criticized Andrews for her actions and condemned her even calling her a criminal. Just as Thoreau stated, often, people who actually do heroic things to “serve the state with their consciences” are seen as the enemy.
On the other hand, more supporters are coming out to rally for Joan Andrews and following in her footsteps of disobeying laws to protest against abortion. Andrews is called “a prisoner of conscience” because she believes that abortion is “sactioning inhumanity” and is trying to prevent the society from conforming to that idea. Fr. Frank Pavone agrees with her, in his message. He says, “ the normal response should be to sacrifice ourselves for them [unborn children]” so Andrews used her “whole influence” as a sacrifice for this issue which encouraged the minority group to speak up. An ideal democracy should allow the minority to become the majority as well. Civil disobedience encouraged minority groups such as the anti-abortion group, in the 1980’s, not to conform because “it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight.” Although Andrews was just one person, the one action of trying to pull the plug of an abortion machine inspired other people in the minority to support her cause as well. She never backed down even when she was just one person out of millions. Instead, she was the “one HONEST man” that attracted more attention on this issue to the point where, in 2022, the minority of anti-abortion seems to have become more equally balanced with the past majority of pro-abortion.
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