Eighteen counterprotesters, including the daughter of a U.S. representative, were arrested Nov. 16 as they tried to prevent the anti-abortion Men’s March from proceeding to Boston Common. The Men’s March, which also took place in 2022 and 2023, convened at the Planned Parenthood on Commonwealth Avenue at 11 a.m. for speeches, then set off on a three-mile march down to the Common.
Over one hundred pro-choice protesters converged on the intersection of Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue to block the road and keep the Men’s March from passing. A few protesters carried reinforced banners or flags, and nearly everyone in the crowd was masked. Another contingent of counterprotesters wearing clown costumes and makeup as part of a “clownterprotest” followed the Men’s March from the Planned Parenthood location, accompanied by a brass band that played songs like Star Wars’ “The Imperial March” to mock the anti-abortion activists.
Boston Police Department, or BPD, officers on bikes preceded the Men’s March by several minutes, and clashes immediately broke out as the police tried to push their way through the crowd of counterprotesters. The pro-choice protesters used their bikes and reinforced banners to push the police back along the street, resulting in prolonged scuffles as each side linked arms and tried to force the other back.
The first arrests took place shortly after noon, with officers pushing into the crowd to yank counterprotesters back behind police lines to be handcuffed or pulling people from the skirmish lines and pinning them to the ground. Protesters shouted their names to green-hatted representatives from the National Lawyers Guild, or NLG, as they were pulled to waiting prisoner transport vans. Among those taken into custody was Riley Dowell, daughter of U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark. Dowell has been arrested before in 2023 for vandalizing the Parkman Bandstand.
The NLG organized a bail fund for those arrested, and all 18 of those in custody were out on bail by the night of Nov. 16. Most counterprotesters were reportedly offered community service in exchange for dropping the charges against them.
The crowd’s resistance weakened as more and more protesters were taken away in zip ties, and the police, now in riot gear, were able to form a moving cordon between the pro-choice and anti-abortion activists and allow the Men’s March to move down Commonwealth Avenue again. The counterprotesters shouted slogans while the anti-abortion activists said Hail Marys all the way to the Parkman Bandstand in the Common, with the strains of bagpipes and brass instruments mingling in the background.
