About 100 protesters blocked the entrance to the Catch the Fire evangelical ministries in the Melbourne suburb of Hallam on Saturday morning, where the controversial World Congress of Families conference was scheduled to begin.
Many speakers, including the American campaigner Angela Lanfranchi, who planned to speak on the thoroughly debunked link between breast cancer and abortion, were unable to get through the gates in their cars. Their path was blocked by protesters holding signs with slogans such as “Our bodies are our property” and “Women are not incubators”.
More than 30 police officers formed their own barrier on the opposite side of the gate in the quiet street of Star Crescent, located in an industrial area. It forced attendees to trickle through the gates one by one as church security struggled to establish whether they had registered. The Monty Python satirical song Every Sperm is Sacred boomed from a sound system organised by protesters.
The protests were vocal, but largely peaceful. Two protesters were arrested as others chanted “What’s the charge?”
The Congress was supposed to be a conservative Christian conference where international speakers could air their anti-abortion, anti-gay and anti-feminist views to a room of 350 registered attendees.
But the event has been marred by chaos after two Catholic churches and three other venues pulled out of hosting it.
Threats of protests were only one reason for their reluctance. The organisers had not organised liability insurance or security, and the small churches in suburbs such as Glen Iris and Mentone that were flagged as potential venues were advised by police they could not support the number of those registered.
But when the ultra right-wing evangelical church Catch the Fire stepped up to provide a venue, it was too much to stomach for the politicians scheduled to speak, including the anti-abortion campaigner and Victorian upper house Liberal member Bernie Finn, the federal government social services minister, Kevin Andrews, and the Victorian attorney general, Robert Clark.
They all withdrew on Friday. Conference programs still listed them as speakers on Saturday.
The pastor of Catch the Fire in Melbourne, Daniel Nalliah, is known for his anti-Islamic and anti-abortion views, and famously blamed the Black Saturday bushfires on Victoria’s abortion laws.
He also founded the anti-Islamic political party Rise Up Australia.
Nalliah allowed Guardian Australia into the Congress, where about 150 of those registered – including families who brought their young children – had shown up. The protests did not bother him, he said.
“I was in a court case for five years fighting for freedom of speech, and I think free speech should be for everyone,” he said.
“So the protesters have a right to be here, but venues shouldn’t have to cancel just because of their nonsense.
“I’m not going to put up with that, and that’s why I decided to hold it here.”
That someone was willing to host the congress came as a relief to event organiser Margaret Butts, who was distressed by the constant rescheduling.
She was upset by the new drama unfolding on Saturday morning as speakers were unable to drive in through the double gates.
“Nobody wants to listen to the science linking abortion and breast cancer,” she said.
“We have all these speakers and people won’t even listen to the evidence before making up their minds.”
Asked if she had ever read a peer-reviewed medical journal, she replied, “I don’t know what that is.
“But I can give you some literature about abortion.”
Protests continued outside as the congress began more than half an hour behind schedule.
But about 15 minutes in, the stage was crashed by one protester, Phaedra Press, from the Whistleblowers, Activists and Citizens Alliance. She was dressed in white and covered herself in fake blood as she ran onto the stage screaming “We don’t want your backyard abortions”.
She was dragged away by security as attendees muttered “Pray for her”.
The much pared-back line-up of speakers includes Fred Nile, party leader of the New South Wales Christian Democrats.
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