Criminal charges have been filed against an anti-abortion activist who climbed Accenture Tower Tuesday in an effort to raise money and awareness for his cause, police said.
Maison Des Champs, a 24-year-old of Las Vegas, faces two misdemeanor counts of reckless conduct and criminal trespass to land after he scaled the 588-foot building on the Near West Side, police said.
Des Champs calls himself the “Pro-Life Spider-Man” and has completed similar stunts in the past to benefit the anti-abortion nonprofit Let Them Live. He typically is arrested once he reaches the top of whatever building he climbs, the organization said.
“The most radical thing you can do in the pro-life movement is nothing at all,” Des Champs said in a statement from the organization.
As Des Champs ascended higher and higher outside of the building, bystanders and workers inside the office building observed, craning their necks to get a better view and taking videos and photos.
The climb was meant to convince one particular pregnant woman, called “Sierra” in the release, to decide against abortion by raising a goal of $27,000.
Anti-abortion activism has been in the spotlight in recent years as the threat of Roe v. Wade being overturned became a possibility and then a reality.
