In August 2024, on the eve of the start of the US Democratic Party Convention, reports appeared on the RuNet that a 6-meter inflatable figure of an intrauterine device called Freeda Womb was approved as the mascot of the event, and forum participants were offered free abortion or sterilization. We have verified the accuracy of such publications.

August 18, 2024 in Russian-speaking Telegram channels Photos have circulated of an inflatable figure of an intrauterine device (IUD), which was allegedly installed in Chicago at the site of the US Democratic National Convention. According to the authors of the posts, the art object was chosen as the forum’s mascot. Former member of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation Franz Klintsevich and American political scientist Malek Dudakov clarified that multi-meter inflatable figures in the form of a womb were placed to symbolize the complete victory of feminism.

Authors of many channels added, that all participants of the convention are offered free medical abortions and quick castration surgery, and at the entrance to the event works an abortion clinic on wheels where “25 children are killed every day and dozens of men and women are castrated. Similar messages were published by the channels “Heavenly"(145,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Sheikh Tamir"(125,000), "Sheinin" (93,000), "The goat screamed"(87,000), etc. This news was also shared by some Media, entertainment portals, blogs And forums.

Ahead of the November presidential election, many Americans polling include the topic of abortion and reproductive rights is among the most important. Since the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court canceled federal law guaranteeing the right to abortion, and transferred regulation to the state level, 14 of them introduced complete or partial ban on abortions without medical indications. Generally, Democratic Party supporters thinkthat reproductive health services should be accessible and guaranteed by law. This position is sequential adheres to and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Most Republican Party supporters support a complete or partial ban on abortion. The party's candidate, Donald Trump, has spoken harshly on several occasions. changed his position on this issue, and recently in the fight for the support of undecided voters publicly rejected some radical ideas of conservatives.

August 19 in Chicago started The four-day Democratic National Convention is one of the key election events during which delegates formally nominate candidates for president and vice president, and they give keynote speeches. Republicans held a similar event a month earlier in the city of Milwaukee.

Most posts about the Chicago convention included a screenshot of an article from the American tabloid The New York Post with the headline “Free abortions and vasectomies, Chicago convention to feature a six-meter inflatable IUD named Freeda Womb.” Such a publication appeared on the publication’s website on August 18 at 02:57 Moscow time. It does talk about the possibility of having a medical abortion or a vasectomy in Chicago during the first two days of the Democratic convention. However, the next sentence indicates that this action is not being carried out by a party, but by a non-profit organization Planned Parenthood, which has been working on reproductive health care in the United States for decades. August 15 Planned Parenthood wrote in X that one of its buses, converted into a mobile clinic, is traveling to Chicago to provide free medical services on August 18 and 19. Anyone wishing to have a vasectomy or medical abortion was asked to register through online form. None of the organization's tweets mentioned the Democratic National Convention or made it clear that procedures were only available to participants, as reported, for example, Klintsevich and Dudakov.

Also wrong statements, that abortions and vasectomies were performed at the entrance to the convention or right at the venue. At 15 seconds video, which Planned Parenthood published on August 20 in X, shows the mobile clinic located near the site of a contemporary art exhibition Into Act! on 2024. She passes about 1 km from the United Center sports arena, where the Democratic National Convention took place.

As for the inflatable figure in the form of a Navy, it is mentioned in The New York Post article in the headline and in one sentence at the very end of the text: “In addition to the mobile clinic, another group, Americans for Contraception, plans to install an 18-foot-tall inflatable intrauterine device called the Freeda Womb.” Judging by posts organization on the social network X, the figure first stood next to the venue of the Into Act!on 2024 exhibition, and then moved on square in front of the Federal Center. John Kluczynski, 4 km from the convention site.

Like Planned Parenthood, Americans for Contraception has nothing to do with the US Democratic Party. On the organization's website writtenthat it unites people across the country - Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated ones - who want to defend their right to contraception, which activists say is under threat. Inflatable figure Freeda Womb organization for the first time installed in a public place on June 5, 2024 in Washington. On that day in the US Senate, representatives of the Republican Party blocked a right to contraception law that would enshrine the right of Americans to buy and use birth control pills, condoms, etc.

Judging by information on the organization's website, Freeda Womb does not symbolize the complete victory of feminism, as claimed Russian Telegram channels, but draws attention to the problems of access to contraception in the United States, which is being encroached upon by supporters of right-wing ideas: “Women don’t talk about contraception and their IUDs, and certainly not in public, so Freeda does it for them.” The Americans for Contraception website has a map of states that Freeda Womb has already visited, as well as schedule its movements for August (Illinois and Ohio) and September (New York). By the way, the figure appears not only in cities where Democratic Party events are held - it was twice installed near the sites of rallies in support of Trump (June 9 in Las Vegas and August 9 at Bozeman). In both cases, the Telegram channels did not publish posts in which they called the inflatable IUD the mascot of the Republican candidate.

States in which events involving Freeda Womb were held. Source: Americans for Contraception

It is no coincidence that the appearance of the Planned Parenthood mobile clinic and the Americans for Contaception inflatable figure in Chicago coincided with the days of the Democratic Party Convention. “People from all over the country will come to Chicago,” explained Dr. Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood. “And we, as health care providers, must do everything we can to show the impact of good and bad policies.” In addition, some residents of neighboring states are coming to Illinois to get an abortion because they states this medical procedure is prohibited. Thus, the organizations wanted to offer reproductive health services to as many people as possible, including those who do not have access to such procedures in everyday life.

Thus, the "Free the Womb" Navy inflatable figure was not the mascot of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and event organizers did not offer free abortions or vasectomies to participants. The organizers of these protests, Planned Parenthood and Americans for Contraception, are in no way affiliated with the Democratic Party. Activists appear at major political events to offer their services to as many people as possible and draw attention to the issue of abortion that troubles the country.

Cover photo: Americans for Contraception