Clowning on forced-birth supporters on the Common

A couple hundred men, mostly Catholic, mostly from out of town, marched from the Packards Corner Planned Parenthood to the Parkman Bandstand on Boston Common today to try to impose their will on a state where abortion remains a right and part of women's health care.

At Kenmore Square, they were met by counter-protesters, with whom police briefly scuffled, knocking some of then - and a Globe reporter - to the ground.

This brought the forced-birth parade to a halt before participants resumed walking to the Common, where they entered a cattle chute made of metal police barriers to get to the bandstand, which was ringed about 40 feet out by two rings of barriers and large numbers of BPD officers and state troopers in body armor, holding long wooden batons.

Walking the chute:

As in Kenmore Square, the men (and three women) were also met there by serious protesters, who booed them, yelled "Shame!" and "Go home, fascists!" and gave them the finger.

But the forced-birth men were also greeted by clowns, from Clown March Boston, attempting to show the ridiculousness of their march through Boston:

Once all the men, mostly in suits, some in clerical garb, were assembled, the men (and a token woman) up on the bandstand began piously calling for all fetuses to be carried to term, although it was hard to hear them past the police barricades because of all the band music, the yelling, the booing, the banging of the outer ring of barriers by protesters.

Forced-birth advocates:

One suited forced birther, carrying a large poster showing what was supposed to be an aborted fetus chopped into pieces, briefly turned towards the protesters. He would clutch his chest, whether because he was experiencing heartburn or to show he was "speaking" from the heart was unclear, then would do a weird sort of wave, possibly of forgiveness towards the demonstrators. Another more obviously prayed at them:

Robby Roadsteamer, who had earlier confronted the marchers at the Planned Parenthood, though, was having none of it. Through his bullhorn, pointed at the men looking his way, he'd adapt songs for the moment, such as "My body, my choice" to the tune of "Sweet Caroline" and "I'm shipping up to Planned Parenthood" to the tune of the Dropkick Murphys song. And then he'd recite a commercial for 1-800-54-Giant and thank people for listening to Oldies 103.3.

When the men and the three women and the three boys had had enough, police lined the cattle shute so they could leave, some towards the intersection of Tremont and Boylston, others back onto the Common along Boylston.

One of the forced birthers, armed with his own loudspeaker, decided to scream back at the protesters standing along the chute, even as police were telling him enough, time to leave. One protester tried to toss some water on him, but the guy evaded getting wet:

Not long after that, police detained two women protesters and led them off the Common, their arms behind their backs in plastic ties.