By Anitra Thomas // Abortion Rights // EEW Magazine Online

Picture it. You’re in church on a Sunday enjoying a sermon, when a woman disrupts the pastor by stripping down to her underwear and yelling profanity.

Well, you don’t just have to imagine it; this happened Sunday in Houston, Texas, at Joel Osteen’s church, when pro-choice activists interrupted the Lakewood pastor’s message with a message of their own: “My body, my choice!”

"My body, my f—ing choice," one activist with Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights shouted and undressed. It was all captured on video and posted to social media. 

"Overturn Roe? Hell no," another activist called out as she, too, removed her clothing. A total of three women participated in the shocking protest.

Despite their rowdy demonstration, Osteen, 59, continued preaching amid the chaos — a move that drew cheers and applause from churchgoers. The women, on the other hand, were escorted out.

Though it is not known whether they changed anyone’s views on abortion, they did, at the very least, get their point across.

Once outside Lakewood Church, the activists, who were arguably doing the most Sunday, continued their protest and were joined by other supporters. 

Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights has condemned the Supreme Court overturning Roe. v. Wade following a leaked draft decision last month. 

"I know it seems very outrageous to do it in a church in a private space," activist Julianne D'Eredita told KPRC 2 of the protest. "However, the people that are enforcing these laws have no qualms coming up to women in private spaces such as doctors' offices and medical clinics to harass them and call them murderers."

The video of the disruption has since gained thousands of views.

"Joel Osteen has an international audience, and silence is violence when it comes to things like these," D'Eredita added. "We have a very unprecedented and very short amount of time to garner the attention that we need to get millions of people on the streets, millions of people doing actions like we were today."