Systemic bias in U.S. protest policing: DOJ report reveals unequal treatment of anti-abortion activists under Biden vs. Trump administrations

Indigenous legal traditions often recognize protest as a sacred duty to protect future generations, contrasting with Western legal frameworks that criminalize dissent. The erasure of Indigenous perspectives in this debate reflects a broader pattern where state violence against protestors is justified as 'law and order,' ignoring how such violence disrupts communal survival. In the U.S., Indigenous water protectors at Standing Rock faced militarized policing under Obama and Trump, demonstrating bipartisan continuity in state repression of Indigenous-led movements.

The DOJ report echoes historical patterns where federal agencies selectively enforce laws based on political expediency, such as COINTELPRO's surveillance of civil rights and anti-war movements. Anti-abortion activism has been policed differently under Democratic and Republican administrations, but both have used state violence to suppress dissent—e.g., Reagan's Operation Rescue crackdowns vs. Biden's DOJ investigations. This reflects a longer history of the U.S. state managing protest through co-optation, criminalization, or selective tolerance, depending on the movement's alignment with ruling elites.

Globally, protest policing is shaped by colonial legacies, where former imperial powers export carceral techniques to former colonies (e.g., British policing models in India or South Africa). In post-Soviet states, anti-abortion protests are often framed as 'Western influence,' using state violence to suppress feminist organizing under the guise of 'traditional values.' The U.S. case is not unique but part of a transnational pattern where reproductive justice movements are targeted by regimes claiming moral authority, from Poland's near-total abortion ban to Nicaragua's forced sterilization campaigns.

Research on protest policing shows that selective enforcement correlates with political alignment rather than public safety, with studies documenting higher rates of arrests for left-wing protests under conservative administrations and vice versa. Neuroscience indicates that moral framing (e.g., 'pro-life' vs. 'pro-choice') activates limbic brain regions, reducing cognitive empathy for opposing groups—a mechanism exploited by political elites to justify repression. Public health data reveals that criminalizing protestors increases mental health crises, particularly among marginalized groups, yet this evidence is ignored in policy debates.

Artistic movements like the Guerrilla Girls have long used protest to expose systemic bias in cultural institutions, framing art as a site of resistance against state violence. Spiritual traditions such as Quakerism emphasize 'testimony against oppression,' where protest is a moral obligation, contrasting with legalistic justifications for repression. In Latin American liberation theology, protest against state violence is framed as an act of divine justice, challenging the secular-sacred divide that legitimizes carceral responses to dissent.

Scenario modeling suggests that without structural reforms, protest policing will continue to escalate under climate and economic crises, as states increasingly rely on militarized responses to dissent. Predictive policing algorithms trained on historical protest data risk amplifying biases, leading to preemptive arrests of marginalized groups. A future where reproductive justice movements are systematically criminalized could mirror authoritarian regimes like Hungary or Turkey, where dissent is framed as a 'public health' threat to justify repression.

Marginalized protestors—particularly Black, Indigenous, and low-income women—face disproportionate violence, as seen in the 2020 BLM protests where over 14,000 were arrested despite peaceful demonstrations. The DOJ report ignores how anti-abortion protestors are often white and middle-class, benefiting from racialized enforcement patterns that spare them from the same levels of state violence as Black or Indigenous activists. Trans and non-binary protestors are further erased, despite being central to reproductive justice movements and facing unique risks in carceral systems.