NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri planned to protest Republican Rep. Ann Wagner, an ardent abortion rights foe fighting to retain her leadership of the state’s 2nd District, at a women’s networking event scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

The event never happened.

With the protest imminent, Wagner’s office allegedly pressured the Women’s Policy Network, a group dedicated to empowering women in state politics, to cancel the event, according to NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri Executive Director Alison Dreith. “I think that showing up in public and being held accountable with 11 days left ’til the election really did influence what happened yesterday,” Dreith told Rewire in an interview Friday.

Wagner’s record on opposing abortion rights includes urging the U.S. Congress to defund Planned Parenthood. She also voted against the Violence Against Women Act in 2013. The anti-choice organization Susan B. Anthony List has endorsed Wagner in her ongoing congressional race against Missouri State Rep. Bill Otto, a Democrat backed by NARAL Pro-Choice America.

Meghan Burris, Wagner’s communications director, placed responsibility for the cancellation with the Women’s Policy Network. She added, in an email to Rewire, that Wagner’s office hoped the event would be rescheduled for November—presumably, after Election Day.

Otto slammed his opponent in a press release.

“I’m embarrassed for these groups having to endure this kind of reprehensible behavior by our elected member of Congress, I’m embarrassed for Ann, and I’m embarrassed for our great state that we can’t even hold a non-controversial policy discussion about women leaders without Ann Wagner’s free speech suppression and temper tantrum cancelling the event,” he said.

Otto subsequently spoke to Rewire, chastising Wagner for failing to participate in a recent League of Women Voters debate between the candidates.

“Ann Wagner actually has a history of this,” Otto said. Wagner previously declined to participate in a similar debate during the last campaign cycle.

NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri’s Dreith elaborated on the allegations, emailing Rewire to say that Christine Page—one of the Women’s Policy Network’s founders, according to a Kansas City Star article—called her that morning. Page threatened to cancel the event if NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri did not call off the protest within the next 30 minutes, Dreith said.

Dreith said she apologized and wanted the event to proceed. Page’s alleged response: “I should be happy because I was about to win the presidency and a bunch of Supreme Court nominees.”

“I told her that was insulting, and that Wagner has had an anti-abortion record for decades, and needed to be held accountable, no matter who was in the White House,” Dreith said.

Dreith nevertheless agreed to pull out of the protest, though by that time, she said it was too late to tell others to stand down. By the time Dreith called Page to provide an update, the event was off.

Page confirmed to Rewire that the group “decided to postpone the event due to planned protests that would have cast a shadow over the bipartisan spirit of the event.”

“The Women’s Policy Network of Missouri was founded as a non-partisan non-profit group dedicated to helping women build relationships with one another across the aisle and across levels and branches of government,” she said via text message. “We hope to reschedule after the election and look forward to a successful event.”

The event was also supposed to have featured Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway, a Democrat. Dreith said she spoke with Galloway later that day.

“Galloway said that she had not talked to Wagner, but that Wagner’s office had called Galloway’s in the morning to see if they knew about the protest,” Dreith said. “Galloway responded that she had never been protested before, but that she expects to one day, because it’s the kind of thing that happens when someone [is] in public office, and that our [F]irst [A]mendment rights should be protected.”

Galloway’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Wagner’s alleged involvement came under criticism from Pamela Merritt, the St. Louis-based co-founder of Reproaction, a direct action group dedicated to increasing abortion access and advancing reproductive justice.

“Protest is one of the most time-honored ways for people to speak truth and demand accountability of those in power,” Merritt said. “That anybody who holds elected office in the state of Missouri would weigh optics over accountability is disturbing, at best, and alarming. If you’re prepared to make outrageous demands about defunding the lone provider for abortion services in Missouri, then you should be prepared to answer for those mistakes.”