NEW YORK — A profanity-laced video posted to social media on Monday features an interview with the woman behind the “Thank God for abortion” float that appeared at the NYC Pride Parade on June 24. The woman, who claims that she was “blessed” to have two abortions, says that she is trying to push back against the Christian beliefs that stand against both homosexuality and abortion, and characterized the float as a “never before seen spectacle of autonomy and conviction.”
“The tie between GLQTQ and people seeking abortion rights is very much both real and unspoken—queer people need abortion access too! And the same Christian core beliefs that fuel homophobia are at the seat of the anti-abortion movement. The #TGFAPrideFloat brings that all together and together is where we need to be,” a GoFundMe page for the float reads. The fundraising effort exceeded its goal of $6,000.
Viva Ruiz states that she created the float because she wanted to celebrate autonomy, as she believes people have the right to do whatever they want with their bodies. One photo on the “Thank God for abortion” website shows Ruiz standing in front of a Ten Commandments monument wearing a “Thank God for abortion” shirt.
“[A]utonomy is where we meet as a queer community. That’s what it’s about—I have a right to do what I want with this body,” she said in the video. “This is a march in independence from a police state; a break from subjugation. That’s where we meet. Physical personhood. Autonomy.”
“And that’s where the joy comes in. We celebrate our right,” Ruiz continued. “I celebrate your right to have 20 abortions. I’ll throw you a party. Or zero. It’s a celebration.”
The large black float featured the “Thank God for abortion” motto written across the side and back, and those aboard danced as they wore shirts that read “legal,” “safe,” “free.” Ruiz wore a golden spray on her head that spelled out the word abortion. Some participants also held banners that read “Thank God for abortion.”
“There’s a release, I think, that happens with the project—to see it out in the open, to see it joyfully claimed, and to have God in it,” Ruiz said.
The video, shared to social media by The Root on Monday, has already received 74,000 views and has generated mixed response. View it in full here. Warning: profanity.
One commenter remarked, “God bless you brave and intelligent ladies. Yes, it’s your body and your baby. You all have the right to do what’s best for you. Nobody else has the right to tell you what to do with your body. … We don’t need back alley abortions to be the thing again. These so-called evangelical Christians aren’t Christians. They’re hateful, greedy and lying CINO’s. Christians in name only.”
“Pregnant people are people, and they have the rights to end parasitic relationships should they wish to. I mind my uterus, and everyone especially those without uteruses, should mind their own business,” another stated.
A third mourned, “The celebration of a murdered child. Could there be anything much more sad? Save a whale, save a tree, save a titmouse. But please blend up your unborn child for the dumpster. So heart breaking.”
“This is blasphemy. This is pure evil. If good people continue to be silent and not call it what it is, then evil will continue. God help us, please,” another lamented.
As previously reported, Scripture teaches that men and women are to glorify God with their bodies, and no longer live in autonomy unto themselves, but to give their all to Him.
2 Corinthians 5:15 reads, “He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again.”
1 Corinthians 6:20 also states, “For ye are bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
Romans 6:13 and 19 instruct, “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. … [F]or as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.”