Defend Reproductive Rights and a Woman's Right to Choose (To have a child or not)

A couple of us went to an East Bay family planning clinic this morning because it was being visited by a bunch of right wing Christian anti-abortionists called the "Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust”.  It was led by a nasty man who frequently told people to shut up and accused us of all sorts of things along with being murderers of course.  Their protest is part of a coordinated series of events to coincide with the anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in 1973, Roe v. Wade. This group believes that since they were born after 1973’s Roe v. Wade ruling, they can consider themselves survivors of abortion. The Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights condemned their harassment of this Oakland women’s health clinic and asked people to come down and support it. 

They held up photos intended to frighten or guilt trip the women going in to the clinic.  There were volunteers outside the clinic who walk the women from their cars in to the clinic or back to their cars on the way out.  They were not part of  our group that went to counter the right wingers.

It was interesting that they had a lot of youth with them, these held the signs primarily.  I tried to hand out some of the fliers from the East Bay March 4th strike committee that is doing outreach for the planned strike of education on that date but the kids wouldn't take them; they wouldn't talk to us at all at first.

Eventually, some of us did get a chance to talk to them and it became clear that the driving force behind their actions is religious fanaticism.  We talked for a while and it was their view (other than we were murderers of course) that at least a baby has a chance if you see a pregnancy to term.  But they have no interest in what happens after that, the conditions in which the child is brought up or the poverty, war, social conditions it might find itself in.  At one point one kid said that that's capitalism, "I have nothing to do with that."  "But we do" some of us replied and said that this is something we have to deal with and that those who control the food supply when people are starving are murderers, those that control life saving drugs becasue people can't afford them and die are murderers. People who die due to lack of shelter when moneylenders own empty homes are being murdered by these people and their policies. The issue of a woman having the right to have a child in a financially secure environment, one that can provide education and jobs, health care and freedom from starvation and the necessities of life was alien to them.  Once a bay is born to them, they're done with it.

Being driven by jesusism, these people are not concerned one iota about social condition.

There were all white, led by a man (Mr. Nasty) who I heard tell the cops he comes from a "family of cops", and he was extremely abusive.


The police were there to ensure what they called the "bubble law" was not violated.  Apparently, this is an ordinance that says protesters must not get within 8 feet of the people using the clinic.  This is not good as it will be used against workers fighting against bosses.  There were about 45 of us there in the end and we outnumbered the religious nuts but it is sad that the Unions don't turn out thousands in defense of these clinics, we won't need bubble laws then.

You can read more on this blog about this subject here and here