Activists arrested for blockading doors at TN Planned Parenthood

Fourteen anti-abortion activists were arrested and taken into custody for blockading the doors to a Planned Parenthood in Memphis, Tennessee, on Friday.

Key Takeaways:

• Fourteen activists were arrested at Planned Parenthood in Memphis on Friday while taking part in blocking the entrance to the facility.

• Tennessee protects most preborn children from abortion; however, Planned Parenthood assists women in traveling for abortions and also transports minors across state lines for abortions without parental consent.

• The event involved a coalition of groups and was intended as a relaunch of the rescue operations carried out at abortion facilities in the 1980s and '90s before the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act was enacted.

• The activism also "marked the launch of a newly-acquired facility in Memphis for the purpose of training anti-abortion activists for nonviolent direct action."

The Details:

According to a press release emailed to Live Action News from Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU), pro-life activists from multiple organizations gathered at Planned Parenthood at 2430 Poplar Avenue in Memphis on Friday morning to carry out peaceful civil disobedience in an attempt to save lives from abortion.

Rescue Resurrection is the "effort to bring back the abortion rescue movement of the 1980s and 90s" before the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act took effect. The event also "marked the launch of a newly acquired training facility in Memphis for the purpose of training anti-abortion activists for nonviolent direct action."

"Nonviolent direct action" involves blocking abortion facility entrances in an attempt to disrupt the facility's operations and stop abortions from taking place.

"No social revolution has ever succeeded without massive social tension and civil disobedience. Our hope is to rekindle a movement that brings abortion front and center to the American public, until we bring this genocide to an end," said longtime anti-abortion activist and author Randall Terry, who took part in the activism.

Tennessee protects most preborn children from abortion, allowing induced abortions to take place solely "to prevent the death of pregnant woman or prevent serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of major bodily function." Induced abortion, the direct and intentional killing of preborn children, is not medically necessary.

According to the press release from PAAU, Planned Parenthood in Tennessee continues to refer for abortions out of state, helps to pay for travel costs like gasoline, and transports minors across state lines for abortions. In July, a judge permanently blocked part of a Tennessee law that prevented the "recruiting" or trafficking of minors for abortions.

Ford Fischer

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LIVE: Anti-abortion “Operation Rescue” protesters outside Planned Parenthood in Memphis, Tennessee x.com/i/broadcasts/1…

1:38 PM · Dec 5, 2025

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During the civil disobedience protest, a large group of individuals, including seasoned "rescuers," walked to the front door singing, "We Shall Overcome," and those who were not planning to get arrested were instructed to walk to the other side of the building by the back door.

"Memphis was chosen because it is where Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and is the home of the National Civil Rights Museum, which highlights the connection between civil disobedience and changing the law," the press release stated.

Police were present during the activism, including about a dozen or more police vehicles, and officers asked the activists to leave, but they did not. Fourteen activists were then arrested in all, including Terry, PAAU founder Terrisa Bukovinac, and activists Joan Andrews Bell and John Hinshaw (who were imprisoned under the FACE Act and pardoned by President Trump). Additional activists arrested on-site included Citizens for a Pro-life Society founder Dr. Monica Migliorino Miller, Let Them Live co-founder Nathan Berning, Melanie Salazar, Elise Ketch, Emily Mahon, James Carney, Rob Rudnick, Cathy Ramey, Doc Kovaly, and Matthew Connolly.

Many of them can be seen on video being carried out by police and put into a police vehicle, which included stalls in which the activists were forced to stand and were blocked from each other's view.

“30 million unborn children have been killed by abortion since the enactment of the FACE Act. I have seen over 100 of these victims, their broken bodies and stolen futures. I have seen the carnage. Abortion is murder and I willingly and nonviolently will place my body in between the killer and the baby—not just refusing to engage in the violence but through passive resistance stopping the violence from happening," said Bukovinac, who was one of the activists who found the bodies of more than 100 aborted babies in a medical waste box in March of 2022, including five babies who appeared to be nearly full-term and were referred to as the DC Five.

"The unborn scheduled for execution deserve someone to come to their defense as they are members of the human family," said Dr. Monica Migliorino-Miller. "True inclusion means to include them and bring about an end to the prejudice and discrimination that casts them out of human communion."