Abortion activists strip to underwear to disrupt celeb pastor’s church service

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Three pro-abortion protestors stripped down to their underwear to disrupt a service at a Texas megachurch on Sunday (June 5).

America has been in turmoil over recent weeks after the leak of Supreme Court papers revealed that the justices were preparing to overturn the 1973 Roe v Wade, which liberalised US abortion rules.

The activists from Texas Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights, wearing wore white sports bras decorated with green hand prints under their clothes, made their way into multimillionaire celebrity pastor Joel Osteen’s Pentecost service in protest against his remarks on abortion.

Osteen, who is conservatively estimated to have made $100million (£80m) as a televangelist and author, takes a conservative line on most social issues, from the death penalty to same-sex marriage.

The celebrity pastor, whose famous supporters include Kanye West, Mariah Carey, Kim Kardashian and Oprah Winfrey, has made it very clear that he’s opposed to abortion in almost all circumstances.

On Sunday, just as Osteen was finishing a prayer, and most of the congregation in Houston were sitting down, one woman stood and shouted “It’s my body, my f***ing choice,” before slipping out of her dress.

A second, and then a third woman joined her as they started chanting “Overturn Roe, Hell no” and also took off their outer clothing to reveal the customised sports bras.

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The trio were hustled out of the 16,800-seat Lakewood Church by security guards, continuing to shout pro-choice slogans as they were ejected from the building.

Once they were outside, the three women were joined by more protestors.

Some of them held up green-painted banners that read "Forced motherhood is female enslavement" and "Abortion on demand and without apology".

One of the activists, Julianne D’Eredita, told reporters afterwards:”I know it seems very outrageous to do it in a church in a private space.

“However, the people that are enforcing these laws have no qualms coming up to women in private spaces such as doctors' offices and medical clinics to harass them and call them murderers.

"Joel Osteen has an international audience and silence is violence when it comes to things like these.

"We have a very unprecedented and very short amount of time to garner the attention that we need to get millions of people on the streets, millions of people doing actions like we were today."

Footage of the interrupted service has been removed from the church’s video channel and Osteen has not spoken publicly about the incident. Lakewood Church has declined to respond to media requests.

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