Anti-vaxx protester throws menstrual blood on California Senate floor shouting 'that's for the dead babies'
The final session of California's state Senate was interrupted on Friday when an anti-vaxx protester threw a menstrual cup full of what she claimed was her menstrual blood onto the floor of the house yelling "that's for the dead babies."
The video of the incident, which happened at 5:14 pm, was posted on Twitter by a user named @connectwithdeb, where a woman can be seen telling CHP officers "my menstrual blood is all over the Senate floor" before being detained. The same account has multiple videos of anti-vaccination protests that took place on Friday at the state Capitol.
The perpetrator was identified as Rebecca Dalelio and she was charged with a felony count of vandalism as well as several misdemeanor counts of battery and disrupting official state business. She posted $10,000 bail and was released from the Sacramento County Main Jail on Saturday, according to sheriff’s department records.
After the incident, California Highway Patrol officers cleared the floor and sealed the area with crime tape. Later that night, the CHP also announced that they had arrested Dalelio on six charges after she "threw a feminine hygiene device containing what appeared to be blood onto the Senate floor." The Assembly resumed its session a while after 7:30 p.m., while the Senate reconvened around 8:45 pm in a separate committee room because its chambers had been declared a crime scene.
According to lawmakers, the activist was part of the anti-vaccine protest that had ensued throughout the week after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation on Monday to crack down on medical vaccine exemptions, reported Politico. Ever since anti-vaccine protesters have remained a mainstay in these legislative galleries, their protests including holding US flags upside down and also targeting Newsom in recent days, crowding around him while chanting and pumping their fists in the air in protest. The outlet also reports that Newsom's spokesman Nathan Click has shared that the governor finds the act worth condemning and also called it "despicable."
Meanwhile, the fluid thrown by Dalelio hit several of the legislators, according to the CHP. Visible splotches were seen on Sen. Holly Mitchell's (D-Los Angeles) desk, while Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda) tweeted a photo of a menstrual cup with red fluid inside. He said that those hit by the liquid included Mitchell, Sen. Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger), Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), Sen. Cathleen Galgiani (D-Stockton) and Sen. Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park.)
When the session was finally reconvened, Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) said, “A crime was committed today, but the Senate will not be deterred from conducting the people’s business. We have legislation left to do.” Senate Republican Leader Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield), said the “person in question” is in custody and “should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," reports Politico. Author of the main medical exemption bill, CA SB276 (19R), State Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), also criticized the anti-vaccine movement in its entirety, and this comes after he was shoved by an anti-vax protestor called Kenneth Austin Bennett, near the Capitol.
Bennett was reportedly arrested on charges of assault, and after Friday's incident, Pan has shared in a statement: "Like Mr. Bennett, this incident was incited by the violent rhetoric perpetuated by leaders of the antivaxx movement. As their rhetoric escalates, their incidents of violence does as well. This is an attack on the democratic process and it must be met with strong condemnation by everyone."
Pan's legislation was opposed earlier this year by lobbyists hired by A Voice for Choice Advocacy, but the organization has since tweeted in a statement that it "does not now & never will support, encourage or condone this repulsive behavior. Civil discourse is the basis of democracy and this behavior is repugnant, harms our democratic process & the protesters own cause."
The protesters of this particular incident also carried around small boxes resembling caskets as they chanted "Do not kill our babies," and "enough is enough," marching the boxes through the Capitol.