Featured Image Credit: @GuidoReichstad1/@banksbiggavell/Twitter
Topics: Crime, Politics, US News, Washington, Social Media, Twitter
Tom Fenton
Topics: Crime, Politics, US News, Washington, Social Media, Twitter
A 42-year-old dad camped out on top of a bridge in Washington, D.C. last week to protest the US Supreme Court's ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The Frederick Douglas Memorial Bridge is just a mile away from the Supreme Court building, where nine Justices voted 5-4 to make abortion rights an individual State issue, with over 20 almost certain to now outlaw it.
Upset by the landmark ruling, which overturned the original 1973 decision, Guido Reichstader scaled the bridge last Friday - even sleeping at the very top on Friday night.
He managed to inform the world of his protest after Tweeting from the top of the bridge, writing: "Hey I'm at the top of the Frederick Douglass bridge in Washington DC right now & want to know why YOU aren't in the streets nonviolently shutting down the gov day after day after day till Congress protects abortion rights? Rise Up my Friends!"
Reichstadter revealed to Business Insider why he took such drastic measures in the wake of the ruling, which has prompted protests from the streets of D.C, all the way to the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury this past weekend.
Advert
He described having 'a very, very, very strong emotional reaction' to the ruling, saying: "I couldn't not do anything."
He said that, after the draft legislation had been leaked in May, he'd wake up 'gasping for air' thinking about the future and the rights of his 12-year-old daughter.
"There's never been a point in US history where the rights of the population have been so egregiously attacked and rolled back," Reichstadter added.
The protest could be seen from street level, as he let off a green flare, and unfurled a flag of the same colour while standing precariously at the very top of an arch.
"The arches were designed in such a way that any reasonably fit person could climb them," he told Insider.
"It seems the designers just took it for granted that people would have the good sense not to climb up them. Of course, the moment I saw them, I knew they had to be climbed."
"Tens of millions of women are waking up without the right to control their bodies and that's why I'm on top of this bridge. I can't understand why the streets aren't already full of fathers standing up for their children's lives."
The father is no stranger to activism, having previously worked with 'Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights' in the past.
This led to an eventual arrest, after he attached himself to the barricades surrounding the Supreme Court earlier this year.
Officials did close the bridge on Friday and for part of the weekend, with Reichstadter eventually climbing down of his own accord on Saturday.
He was promptly taken into custody by the Metropolitan Police Department - According to Fox News.
If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via [email protected]