The owner of woke coffee shop Wydaho Roasters told Kristan Hawkins and other pro-life advocates, ‘It’s like if the KKK asked to meet here, I would say no.’
(LifeSiteNews) Kristan Hawkins, head of the national pro-life group Students for Life of America, along with her four children and 10 other local pro-life activists were kicked out of an Idaho coffee shop by an irate owner equating pro-life advocacy with the Ku Klux Klan.
Hawkins says she, her son Bear, and the rest of the group were gathering at Wydaho Roasters, a local coffee shop, for the first meeting of a new local pro-life initiative, Abortion Free Teton Valley. “We paid for our food. We weren’t protesting or disrupting anyone. We were simply sitting together having a peaceful conversation,” she said.
“I said everybody is welcome, but I said I don’t want this group meeting here,” the owner declared in a video of the confrontation. “I don’t care. Go to the public library. This is my place of business.”
When it was pointed out that they are regular customers who already paid for their food, he responded, “Did I make it very clear that I did not want you here? I did a lot of work to get people on the ballot for, so women would have the right to choose in the state of Idaho, and this is something I do not support, nor does my wife, and it’s our business. So we have that choice.”
“It’s like if the KKK asked to meet here, I would say no,” he declared. When challenged on the alleged similarities between defending preborn life and a racist terror group, he claimed, “In my world it’s the same, it’s the same sort of concept.”
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Hawkins noted that the shop proudly hosts numerous community and left-wing activist events, including “Queer Coffee Hour” and a signature gathering event for “reproductive freedom.”
“The owners of Wydaho Roasters need a lesson in manners as well as history,” Hawkins declared. “This was the first meeting of our brand-new Abortion Free Teton Valley group. Our goal was discussion how to bring more free services to hurting families in our community and educate voters about the late-term abortion referendum on the Idaho ballot this November. Not only is it offensive to be compared to the KKK, it’s insane to say that those who want to protect babies of every race, creed, and color have anything in common with that hateful organization. When it comes to groups tied to the KKK, take a look at Planned Parenthood and the racist, eugenics agenda that it was founded on. We may have had to move our meeting, but we won’t abandon our passion for babies and their moms.”
Tweet This: “It’s like if the KKK asked to meet here, I would say no” - Wydaho Roasters Coffee House owner regarding a pro-life group at his business.
Most abortions are illegal throughout pregnancy in Idaho, with a trigger ban starting at conception and civil liability law starting at six weeks. Exceptions are permitted for rape, incest, or when allegedly “necessary” to save a mother’s life. In January 2023, the Idaho Supreme Court upheld the bans and ruled that the Idaho Constitution does not contain a “right” to abortion.
In response, a group calling itself “Idahoans United for Women & Families” has launched a ballot initiative to enact a new statute, the “Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act” (RFPA), that would codify a “right to reproductive freedom and privacy, which is the right to make personal decisions about reproductive health care that directly impact the person’s own body,” expressly including abortion.
In an apparent play for the support of moderates, the initiative allows the state to “regulate” abortion after fetal viability “except in cases of medical emergency” and states that it “does not create a financial obligation on the state, its agencies, or their programs to pay for, fund, or subsidize the (so-called) reproductive health care protected by this act.”
Regarding the former assurance, however, health exceptions are commonly designed as loopholes meant to authorize abortionists to rationalize any abortion. In Roe v. Wade’s companion ruling Doe v. Bolton, for example, the U.S. Supreme Court wrote that “health” had to be understood to mean not only physical medical complications but factors such as “emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age.”
The initiative, which will appear on the ballot this fall, will only require a majority vote to be ratified. “Pro-life groups have fundraised over $1.6 million for the fight, and several groups are already pounding the pavement; the abortion activists behind Proposition 1 are close behind with $1.1 million raised thus far, including donations from actors Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest,” LifeSite’s Jonathon Van Maren wrote.
Editor's note: This article was published by LifeSiteNews and is reprinted with permission.
