[Boston-wkg-video] Anyone interested in shooting this event?

[Michael J Borucke]

If you're interested, let me know.

Peace,
Mike

Fwd: [defendabortion] DEFEND ABORTION CLINIC ACTION: Sat., Jan. 14



On 1/6/06, Huibin Amelia Chew <hachew at gmail.com> wrote:
> STAND UP FOR HEALTHCARE & ABORTION ACCESS!
>
>
>
> SUPPORT WOMEN USING PLANNED PARENTHOOD!
> DEFEND REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE !
>
>  ** CLINIC ACTION **
> 8:30 am to 11:30 am
>  Saturday, Jan. 14
> Outside Planned Parenthood in Allston - 1055 Commonwealth Ave.
> (near Pleasant St. T-stop)
>  ** Please RSVP (see below) **
>
> Every second Saturday of the month, 30 to 100 anti-abortionist demonstrators
> hold  mass "vigil" outside the Planned Parenthood in Allston -- verbally
> abusing, videotaping, and even physically harrassing anyone trying to enter
> the clinic. "Operation Rescue" prevents women from receiving medical
> services, threatens the safety of clinic staff, has assaulted patients, and
> has vandalized doctors' offices.
>
> Come support choice and women's access to reproductive healthcare!
>
>  At the last two silent and non-violent clinic actions, we occupied the
> police pen closest to Planned Parenthood, causing the right-wing protesters
> to retreat to a pen further from the building -- for the first time in
> years!
>
>  We use SILENT and PEACEFUL deflection to counter those who try to
> intimidate and shame patients. We will:
>
> * Wear color-coordinated uniforms, block invasive cameras, and hold PINK
> CLOTH with supportive symbols over anti-abortion propaganda!
>
> * LEAFLET with reproductive justice, abortion, and healthcare info to
> non-patient passersby. "Operation Rescue" (or as well call them, "Operation
> Oppress-You") hands lies and sexist literature to all who pass -- we must to
> counter them on the streets!
>
>  * Occupy the first police pen, causing anti-abortionists to retreat to the
> pen further from the building, where their shouts and "holy water" will be
> blocked. Peaceably divert "Operation Rescue" members who illegally approach
> patients. Block those OR members who pose as traffic cops to trick patients
> into parking far away.
>
>  Women must seek reproductive health services without humiliation,
> isolation, and intimidation! We must inform the public on reproductive
> justice, not allow anti-woman lies to blast unopposed. Every woman should be
> able to choose what happens to her body!
>
> WE NEED TO TAKE BACK OUR STREETS & NEIGHBORHOODS!
>  JOIN US!  WEAR PINK!
>
>  PLEASE RSVP so we can delegate a role to you and ensure the clinic action
> is highly disciplined and well-coordinated, given its sensitive location:
> daplanning at lists.riseup.net or 617-566-2861.
>
> COME TO A PLANNING MEETING to be trained in logistics, and learn about our
> other projects:
>
>  ******* We need your help! ********
> PLANNING MEETINGS:
> 7 pm - Mondays
> 45 Mt. Auburn St. (near Harvard T-stop)
>  Get involved! daplanning at lists.riseup.net or 617-566-2861
>
> **********************************************************************
>  BELOW:
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  1) Report from the October Clinic Action
> 2) Who is the Coalition to Defend Reprodutive Rights?
>  3) About Clinic Defense tactics
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> **********************************************************************
>  1) A Report from the October Clinic Action
> **********************************************************************
>
> Oct. 15, 2005
> By Amee Chew
>
> The pro-choice action in October was not held on a second Saturday when
> anti-abortionists appear in full force. It went smoothly, with Planned
> Parenthood escorts expressing appreciation for our tactics!
>
> Although it was raining cats and dogs for most of the morning, by 8:30 am
> about 7 "Operation Rescuers" (OR) had already arrived! Their numbers swelled
> to around 10-12 by later in the morning, and they had three displays set up
> on the sidewalk with pictures of fetuses.
>
> Six members of the Coalition to Defend Reproductive Rights came out for our
> action. Two people held up the pink banner saying "Your Body, Your Life,
> Your Choice" along the wall to the right side of the clinic entrance, with
> the banner facing the street. The remainder of us held matching pink fabric
> in front of one of OR's sidewalk displays as well as a giant picture of a
> dead fetus. We wore pink armbands on both arms -- yes, including the men in
> our group -- to be as visible as possible.
>
> We stood silently and non-violently, not engaging Operation Rescuers in
> arguments or loud confrontation -- although we absorbed their conversation
> and attention, distracting them from patients. The head PPLM escort said she
> appreciated us keeping OR from bothering patients  by causing them to talk
> to us instead. Before leaving she also told us she felt she could give a
> good report on what had happened to the PPLM staff. We were mostly
> stationary, except when a sign moved.
>
> Two or three men stood with a giant cross, holding rosaries directly outside
> PPLM's door, facing the entrance so they were the first thing you could see
> on coming out. Another man tried to hold a giant dead fetus poster there
> too, but I held a large pink cloth in front. The whole time the men kept up
> singing and praying. Other OR members,  several elderly women, were trying a
> missionary "act like a lamb" approach, giving brochures to passersby and
> acting like they were offering services. Every so often the act slipped and
> they would follow after patients, screaming about murder and going to hell.
> They approached everyone walking past that they could, trying to engage them
> in conversation.
>
> The OR people exhibited both anger and sugar-coated attempts to convert us,
> but did not become violently threatening (unlike during our first action).
> They told us they were praying for us, kept saying we had blood on our
> hands, etc. -- but did not rip our cloths from us as they had before, when
> they were present in a much larger group. One elderly woman repeatedly said
> she understood I was just a young woman who wanted love and I was out there
> being a "show off" to get attention. I asked her why she kept giving me
> attention then. I turned her rhetoric around and said I was out there
> because I loved people, and didn't think she was hate-motivated. She
> eventually got mad and stood infront of me, purposefully holding her
> umbrella so it dripped on my hat.
>
> Strangely, other OR people simply stood further down the sidewalk and
> watched what was happening from under their umbrellas. One man took flash
> photographs of us.
>
> Through listening to OR people, I began to get an interesting taste of how
> conservative ideologies fit together. One man brought his ten-year-old son,
> whom I struck up a conservation with. When I asked him why he was there, he
> gave the usual about millions of dead babies -- and then said, if there are
> more babies and more people, then taxes will be lower. I later mentioned the
> 36 million people dying of AIDS, and he said, yes, especially in Africa, and
> that his father had been to India (giving me thoughts about how cultures of
> imperialism work). When I first stood infront of a fetus display, a man
> repeatedly kept coming up to me, growling, "You can't touch the sign, that's
> private property!" and later, "Do you understand English?!? Where are you
> from? Do you UNDERSTAND ENGLISH?"
>
> The woman who kept trying to talk to me also mentioned, "Your country
> [China, I assume?] kills babies, and now you're trying to spread abortion
> here!" In this same group, you had another man ranting to us about how
> racist Margaret Sanger was, a common line OR members shout to black women,
> but which they chose to throw at a white man in our group today.
>
> But the highlight of the day for me came after the PPLM escorts left (around
> 11 am). The same above woman was standing in the buffer zone talking to a
> teenager who obviously didn't want her there, shaking her head and trying to
> wave her away. From where I was standing I yelled over, "It's illegal to
> talk to people who don't want to talk to you in the buffer zone," pointed
> out the sign on the building, and said she had to stand behind the white
> line. So she came up to me all pissed, shouting "You're just a young
> whipper-snapper! I'VE been doing this for years ... [etc]" -- and
> eventually, "Who's going to pay for Social Security??!?! There's not going
> to be enough young people to pay for Social Security!!" Of course I had to
> respond, "Why don't you fight for Social Security then? Why don't you fight
> for housing and healthcare?" To which she yelled, "You foreigners just come
> over here to MOOCH OFF OF US!" and stormed off.
>
> The Operation Rescue people packed up and left promptly at 11:30 am. We were
> in store for another surprise, though: at 11:40 am (it was still raining), a
> new group of about 14 Catholics came out! They were younger than the OR
> folk, in their 20s and 30s. A dozen men stood in row facing the entrace to
> the clinic, blocking it off like a human wall; they had rosaries, prayer
> mats, and pictures of babies. They began to recite Hail Mary's without
> stopping, pretty creepy and intimidating. Several young woman with
> umbrellas, rosaries, and literature, waited by the door accosting people,
> within the buffer zone -- they yelled at patients going in, and followed
> passersby down the street for up to two blocks! We left at around 12 pm.
>
> Note: At the next two actions we held on second Saturdays in Nov. and Dec.,
> we blocked OR from occupying the police pen closest the the clinic,
> obstructing their access to patients. In Nov., we were joined by three women
> who had independently accompanied friends or relatives to the clinic for
> abortions that morning.
>
>
>
> **********************************************************************
>  2) Who is the Coalition to Defend Reproductive Rights?
> **********************************************************************
>
>  We are feminists, women who have and haven't had abortions, women who do
> and don't use contraception, users and non-users of Planned Parenthood's
> services. But most of all, we are community members concerned about the
> state of access to reproductive healthcare. We have organized and formed a
> coalition to defend and extend our reproductive rights.
>
> While legislative change at the state and federal levels is crucial, we also
> believe in the need for direct action to reclaim public space, and to
> counter the women-blaming climate and perceptions in our neighborhoods and
> communities. We hope to help embolden increased grassroots activism for
> women's rights and reproductive justice on a myriad of fronts. Historically,
> clinic defenses have successfully caused right-wing demonstrators to
> retreat, and cease their tactics.
>
>  Additionally, we are beginning a reproductive and sexual health education
> project involving high school students. We hope to expand our work to
> include education and mobilization around other reproductive justice issues,
> including emergency contraception, health education, and the right-wing
> takeover of the Supreme Court.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> Questions? daplanning at lists.riseup.net or 617-566-2861
>
> **********************************************************************
>  3) A Look at Clinic Defense Tactics
> **********************************************************************
>
>  Currently, CDRR continues to build its numbers and attempts to pursue
> clinic action tactics appropriate to its resources.  A look at other actions
> around the country:
>
>  SAN FRANCISCO -- "Responding to the news of O'Connor's retirement,
> anti-choice politicians congested the airwaves, denouncing Roe v. Wade. And
> more aggressive right-wing Christian activists found new strength in the
> already hostile, anti-woman atmosphere brewing in American politics.
>
>  "About 15 young people, belonging to an organization called Crusade for
> Life, spent two weeks marching across the Bay Area to target clinics that
> provide reproductive and abortion services to women. In San Francisco this
> right-wing organization, consisting mostly of white university students,
> focused on a Planned Parenthood clinic in the low-income, multi-ethnic
> Tenderloin district.
>
>  "The Crusade for Lifers joined a handful of regular anti-choice protesters
> who camp in front of the Planned Parenthood clinic every Saturday morning.
> With rosaries and enlarged photos of what they claim to be aborted fetuses,
> the regular protesters welcomed the Crusade for Life organization in their
> attempt to rob women of their dignity and hinder them from benefiting from
> one of the most basic human rights.
>
>  "Socialist Action members responded to this threat to a woman's right to
> choose
>  by partnering with Planned Parenthood and other pro-choice activists to
> defend
> the clinic and escort women through the anti-choice crowd... Planned
> Parenthood asked the counter-protesters to join the escorts in creating a
> disciplined human shield to protect the clinic doors.
>
>  "Clinic defense is as simple as it sounds: it is the physical defense of
> the
>  doors of a clinic so that clients can enter and leave... "
>
>  -- Rebecca Doran in August 2005 issue of Socialist Action
>
>  -----------
>  The case for clinic defense:
>  "Legal abortion doesn't matter if you can't get one"
>  August 19, 2005 | Page 5
>
>  LINCI COMY has been executive director of Women's Choice Clinic in Oakland,
>  Calif., since 1988 and an employee since 1977. She is also a member of the
> Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights (BACORR) and supports a
> vocal,
>  activist defense of clinics from the anti-abortion bigots who gather to
> harass patients and staff. She talked to AMANDA MAYSTEAD about the
> importance of
>  defending the clinics.
>
>  HOW DID BACORR come about?
>
>  WE WERE originally the Clinic Defense Committee (CDC). We started that in
> the 1980s, when there was an ongoing domestic campaign of terror where
> clinics were being bombed and picketed, and a fair amount of arson was
> happening in the night.
>
>  So the idea of clinic defense was that during high holidays--especially
> around Easter or Christmas--we would actually protect the clinics. We would
> have overnight camp-ins, we would post guards, we would really pay attention
> at those times when it seemed that the anti-abortion movement was more
> likely to
>  strike.
>
>  Having watched one of our Southern California clinics burn to ground in the
> early '80s, I learned very quickly that the anti-abortionists are not simply
> praying for their view of reality, but in truth, they are one of our most
> significant domestic terrorist groups.
>
>  The Bay Area Coalition Against Operation Rescue came out of some of those
>  attacks, where women found themselves facing 300 or 400 anti-abortionists
>  blocking their access to the clinics. It was formed as a way to deal with
> the
>  blockading strategy that was being used at that particular moment in the
> '80s.
>  Later, we became the Bay Area Coalition For Our Reproductive Rights.
>
>  WHAT IS clinic defense?
>
>  THE FIRST thing we're saying is that reproductive health centers are
> revolutionary territory, and that we must provide a safe place for women to
> be
>  able to make reproductive decisions, whether that's "Am I going to use
> condoms
>  or birth control pills for my basic method of contraception?" or "Am I
> going to
>  seek abortion for an unwanted pregnancy?" or "Am I going to provide
> adoption
>  services?"
>
>  I think clinic defense really means that having people in front of the door
> is the way to make the difference.
>
>  Women's health care has actually been assaulted by these antis. People are
>  afraid to come into the clinic because there are people outside who are
> taking
>  their pictures, and taking videotapes of them and their cars, and writing
> down
>  their license plate numbers. This is a hostile situation, and the only
> reason someone would be videotaping you or writing down your car is because
> they plan
>  on pursuing you personally. If that was happening in a personal
> relationship,
>  you'd be able to have a restraining order.
>
>  The standard plan of the antis these days is just to be stalkers, to be
> harassers, so that women are afraid to seek reproductive health care. So,
> for me, clinic defense is creating an environment where women know when they
> come into the clinic that there's visible people who are pro-choice, who are
> escorts, and they know that it's safe to come into the facility.
>
>  WHAT DO you say to critics, such as Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, that
>  believe clinic defense and confrontation confuses clients or turns them
> away?
>
>  THAT'S NOT true at our clinic. What we've found is that women have always
>  appreciated knowing that there are people protecting them at the door.
>
>  I think the privacy issues are significant, but the problem is the antis,
> certainly not the people that are supportive. I think the videotaping, the
> camera use and the actual pursuit of people by antis is a total invasion of
> privacy. But to think that clinic defenders are doing that is really
> ludicrous, and I think it's really wrong thinking.
>
>  I think Planned Parenthood has taken a stand, trying to act like there's
> not a war going on. I think you can bury your head in the sand, but the
> truth is that their tactics of not responding and not ensuring that the
> antis aren't able to be at their door every weekend has created a situation
> where they have picketers every weekend.
>
>  I think at this point, after many years, they should realize that their
> strategy isn't working, and that they think it's okay to have picketers
> there every weekend and don't think that's a violation of people's privacy.
>
>  We don't have picketers on a regular basis, and that's because we stand
> strongly against the harassment of women. If you just let people get away
> with
>  harassment, then you come to accept that as the standard, everyday reality.
>
>  I think picketers are a real wave of attack against women; I really see it
> as domestic violence.
>
>  The truth is that clinics are under the gun. The corporate world doesn't
> want to provide the same insurance guidelines, general liability guidelines
> that every other business has to run under. The penalty of providing quality
> health care is that you pay more for everything than in any other business.
>
>  I think we need to seriously look at that. Many, many clinics are not able
> to meet the economic harassment that people have been under. We've had over
> 500 clinics close down in the last 15 years, nationally. We just lost
> another clinic down in San Jose.
>
>  The reality is that if clinics are going to stay open, then people are
> going to need to help fund them.
>
>  Planned Parenthood has done a really good job of acting like they are the
> only
>  reproductive health center in the country--and by doing that, they've
> siphoned
>  off a lot of the funds that aren't getting to independent providers. It's
> important for people to recognize that if you want to make a donation,
> that's fine, make it to Planned Parenthood, but then send half of that to a
> local community clinic in your neighborhood, so that you can help insure
> clinics are staying open.
>
>  I have a bulletproof vest, and I probably have a better bulletproof vest
> than most of the guys in Iraq, because my community bought that for me. I
> think those kind of expenses are not just stuff you can write off.
>
>  The economic issues and stress that clinics live under is really severe. So
> I think it's important that if people want access [to abortion] to remain in
> the country, not only do we have to deal with the Supreme Court, not only do
> we have to deal with Constitutional attacks such as parental consent rules,
> but we do have to recognize that we have to open our wallets, because
> clinics are closing. And it doesn't matter if abortion is legal if you can't
> get one.
>
>  For more information about the Women's Choice Clinic of Oakland, visit
>  www.womenschoiceclinic.org.
>
> ******************************************************************
> --------------  Please Forward Widely ! ----------------
> ******************************************************************
>