Washington, D.C. Restaurant Cancels Pro-Life Breakfast at March for Life After Guests Complain

Democrats for Life of America (DFLA) was planning to hold a breakfast event next week in conjunction with the annual March for Life event at a Washington, D.C., restaurant called Busboys and Poets. DFLA even had a signed contract for the breakfast event, but received an email recently canceling the reservation because, as the restaurant explained, “guests have reached out about the nature and tenor of the event.”

In case you missed it, that’s code for “we don’t like having pro-life people around… even if they are Democrats.” A zero-tolerance policy.

The March for Life is attended annually by tens of thousands of marchers who gather in the nation’s capital to attend events and make their voices heard on behalf of the dignity of human life. The yearly march is intended to coincide with the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that created a constitutional “right” to abortion.

How sad is it that a restaurant in the heart of the most political city in the country would succumb to the political pressure of a small pro-abortion crowd about an event they won’t even be attending?

Kristen Day is the Executive Director of DFLA.

“The Catering Director [of Busboys and Poets] mentioned to me that Planned Parenthood holds events at the venue which I did not think was relevant to the conversation,” Day told LifeNews. “Clearly, Busboys and Poets caved to pressure instead of abiding by the contract we signed.”

Day also sent an email to DFLA donors and supporters explaining what happened with the event’s cancellation.

“Americans need to know what this cancel culture and top-down hostility toward the life movement results in,” she wrote. “It results in bullying, discrimination, and cancellation. Every American has the right to be heard!”

Washington, D.C., is not what one might call a particularly welcoming environment for pro-life views.

Another pro-life advocate is highlighting the hostility of the District of Columbia’s local government toward the March for Life. The District’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, has imposed a set of onerous requirements for people to access public businesses such as restaurants and other establishments, supposedly related to recent COVID outbreaks there.

Those requirements for entry, which take effect just one week before the March, include proof of at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine – or a medical or religious exemption. But with the exemption you also must show proof of a negative COVID test within the last 24 hours. Everyone must show a photo ID. In addition, you have to wear a mask indoors even if you’re vaccinated.

Ryan Bomberger, the Chief Creative Officer of The Radiance Foundation, took issue with Mayor Bowser’s mandate in an op-ed for LifeNews. He criticized the timing of, and motive for, the mandate.

“Bowser’s unconstitutional mandate begins one week before the annual March for Life in DC,” Bomberger wrote. It’s already caused massive cancellations in interior events because the contradictory mandate requires all restaurants, bars, gyms, indoor meeting spaces, and indoor entertainment venues to refuse people (12 years old and older) entrance into their establishments unless they prove their vaccination status.

“People who claim an exemption have to show documentation of a medical/religious exemption and have a negative COVID test within the last 24 hours…you know, the tests that are super accurate and abundantly available,” Bomberger continued, somewhat sarcastically.

Bomberger, an African American, pulls no punches in blaming the District’s pro-abortion mayor for attempting to disrupt the March.

“The radically pro-abortion mayor stands with the leading killer in the black community—Planned Parenthood. The same politician that had government employees paint ‘Black Lives Matter’ on a public street in DC doesn’t actually believe that all black lives matter. If you partner with the organization that kills 360 black lives every single day, you’re part of the problem.”

Focus on the Family will be represented at the March for Life. Look for reports from The Daily Citizen team on the day’s events as marchers from every part of America, including young and old, Democrats and Republicans, Catholics, Protestant and Evangelicals, lock arms and proclaim a vision of, as the mission statement for the March states, “a future world where the beauty and dignity of every human life are valued and protected.”

Photo from Shutterstock.