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Pro-Abortion Activist Climbs 1,400-Foot Bridge To Get ‘Closer To God’

   DailyWire.com
Abortion-rights activist Guido Reichstadter is confronted and detained by Supreme Court Police officers after chaining himself to a security fence in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 6, 2022 in Washington, DC.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images

A pro-abortion protester who was arrested earlier this month and had his charges dropped after he chained himself to a fence outside the Supreme Court building took his antics to another level Friday following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Guido Reichstadter climbed atop of the 1,445-foot Frederick Douglas Bridge in Washington, D.C., Friday morning and has stayed on top of the bridge for at least seven hours. The bridge has since shut down as law enforcement officers gathered below him.

“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 tweeted. 

Multiple Capitol Police cars could be seen on the bridge, along with at least two fire trucks.

The Daily Wire’s Mary Margaret Olohan messaged Reichstadter while he walked around on top of the bridge and asked him what he was doing up there.

“Getting closer to God,” the protester replied with a winky-face symbol. Reichstadter then told Olohan he would come down “any day now.”

“I found a way up, I’ll find one down I guess …” he wrote.

Screenshot: Mary Margaret Olohan

Screenshot: Mary Margaret Olohan

Reichstadter, who was arrested earlier this month for chaining himself to the barrier protecting the Supreme Court, believes that the charges against him were dropped because authorities feared that his arrest was “not a good look,” The Daily Wire previously reported.

On the morning of June 6, a man identified as Guido Reichstadter had hopped over the barricades and chained himself to the unscalable fence surrounding the Supreme Court using a bike lock and chain. Then, as reporters and protestors watched, he took out pliers and attempted to break the key that went into the lock before throwing the key on the ground.

“I am not letting my daughter’s rights be taken away by this unelected, unaccountable Supreme Court,” he yelled as he stood chained to the fence.

Before his exhibition, the pro-abortion protestor had tearfully explained that he feared for his daughter’s future ability to get an abortion, saying, “I’m just a dad, and I can’t sit back while my daughter’s rights are taken away.”

After several warnings, police arrested Reichstadter and took him to a holding area in the Supreme Court building, the activist told The Daily Wire in mid-June. He said they booked him, took mugshots, held him, and then transferred him to a central cell block.

“I stayed there overnight. I didn’t know what was going to happen,” he said outside the Supreme Court on Monday morning, where he was protesting with other members of the RiseUp4Abortion group.

But to Reichstadter’s surprise, the charges were dropped.

“In the morning, they gave me a pre-hearing interview, and I was supposed to have a hearing with a judge at 9 o’clock, then they sent me back in the cell, and by 12 o’clock, they let me know that the charges had been dropped.”

Asked why the charges were dropped, the abortion activist suggested that D.C. authorities were doing “damage control.”

“While I was [at] the bottom of the Supreme Court, I heard the police talking. They said, ‘oh, this has gone viral on Twitter already,’ so maybe it was the public perception that it’s not a good look for the mayor to be imprisoning a father fighting for his daughter’s rights,” he added.

Reichstadter claimed D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser was involved in getting the charges against him dropped, but her office did not respond to requests for comment from The Daily Wire. The Metropolitan Police Department told The Daily Wire that the Supreme Court police had handled the entire situation, and the Supreme Court police did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

A previous version of this article stated that the pro-abortion activist climbed atop the bridge Thursday. The activist climbed on top of the bridge Friday. The piece has been updated to reflect this correction.

Mary Margaret Olohan contributed to this report.

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