Operation Rescue routed in Los Angeles

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Cops WAT WOMEN'S Three new pamphlets on Women's Liberation SOCIALIST ACTION APRIL 1989 …7

MARTY DENZEL

LOS ANGELES-After the rout of Operation Rescue here on March 25, Kathy Spillar, an organizer of the newly formed nationwide Coalition for a Safe and Legal Abortion, said: "We have proved that we can beat Operation Rescue today in Los Angeles. We have got the forces, the skills, the determination to stop them anywhere. By the end of the year there will be no more Operation Rescue."

Operation Rescue met with resounding defeat on several levels. Its leaders had promised that 2500 to 3000 "rescuers" would shut down Los Angeles abortion clinics. On the largest of the three days of demonstrations— Saturday, March 25—no more than 500 showed up. But well over 1000 pro-choice activists came to the defense of the L.A. clinics.

Each day saw Operation Rescue at only one clinic instead of the promised three to five a day. Pro-choice activists, on the other hand, were mobilized at 5 a.m. at more than 50 of The following interview with Ellen Convisser, president of Boston N.O.W., was conducted by Alexei Folger for Socialist Action. This interview has been edited and abridged.

Socialist Action: How has the chapter organized to combat Operation Rescue? They've been attacking Boston fairly frequently since the end of October.

Ellen Convisser: We had been targeted as an area they really wanted to focus on back in October, as you know. But basically what happened was that the pro-choice community here came together so quickly and so intensively that we've discouraged them from focusing on us the way they wanted to.

S.A.: How did you do this?

Convisser: Initially we started out by saying we were not going to be responsive to them, that what we wanted to do was make pro-choice statements that weren't reactive in a direct kind of way to Operation Rescue. But soon it became clear to us that while we need to maintain our own agenda, this approach was insufficient.

In addition, we had not sufficiently addressed the entire range of issues on the abortion and reproductive rights agenda. These include funding, access, lesbian and gay parenting rights, and forced sterilization.

So it started out that our plan was to do two things. One was to continue to have a pro-choice presence in Boston. The other was to work within the national pro-active, pro-choice movement. And we did that. We did that very successfully on Oct. 29 when we lined Beacon Street with over 3500 pro-choice The War-" The War on nalnst artion Rights: How Aligın ts- to Fight 'Operation ฿%: Kor0{@ Rescue' and the Right to Life' By Carole Seligman Price: $1.00 Mail order to: 3435 Ary St., activists.

S.A.: Three a lot.

Convisser:

FIGHT THE Rights San Francisco, CA 941 the area's 90 clinics. Furthermore, using a command center and mobile telephones, the pro-choice forces were able to move within moments to defend any of the clinics that might be hit.

Randall Terry, the former used car salesman who founded Operation Rescue, had promised followers that they wouldn't be arrested for illegally blocking the clinic facilities. Or if they were arrested, he said, they would be "released immediately by the police" and would only receive fines comparable "to a parking ticket."

Instead, Terry and three others found themselves in jail awaiting arraignment on felony charges of conspiracy to commit a crime. And those who had been previously arrested at any clinicor who failed to cooperate or refused to give proper identification—were jailed. Only cooperating first-time offenders were released after booking.

Police chief Daryl S. Gates announced that the City Attorney's Office will seek to have Operation Rescue pay for the police cost of their Saturday demonstration, estimated to be in excess of $100,000. This is in addition to thousand pro-s The Fight for Women's Rights Today By Sandy Doyle, Shirley Pasholk and Syivia Weinstein Price: $1.25 any fines court.

No clinic was shut down No clinic was shut down for the day and all patients who were scheduled were seen— either later in the day or at another clinic. No woman who was seeking medical attention was unable to receive care.

Spirits were high despite the steady and sometimes driving rainstorm which persisted throughout the Saturday demonstration. Hundreds of defenders of the right of women to choose chanted, "Not the church, not the state, women will decide our fate." Cheers were heard as women were escorted into the clinic by defenders soon after the arrests were made.

In contrast, on Feb. 11, Operation Rescue had successfully closed two L.A. clinics. There were no arrests. Then on March 3, a judge granted the American Civil Liberties Union's request for an injunction barring protesters from bodily blocking entrances and demonstrating closer than 15 feet from clinic entrances and exits. here in the Boston area have not been difficult to organize because people are very angry about this issue, people are totally inspired by their anger and by the attacks of Operation Mir xism Feminism The worldwide struggle for women's equality include 65 cents for postage by Rick Reinhard/Impact Visuals Marxism and Feminism: T.

Worldwide Struggle for Women's Equality Price: $1.50 Heavy public pressure was brought to bear on the LAPD to enforce the injunction. Police Chief Gates initially stated that the LAPD would rely on "citizen's arrests" during the holy week blockage.

A city council meeting voted 11 to 0 to demand that the LAPD enforce the injunction. Under public pressure the LAPD moved reluctantly. An order to disperse was not given by the police for two hours. When the arrests did finally begin, they took almost four hours to complete.

Before this serious setback for Operation Rescue, a "National Day of Rescue" had been called for April 29. Los Angeles activists are again preparing for defense of the clinics. For more information, call the ACLU Pro-choice Hotline at (213) 487-INFO.

Other Los Angeles pro-choice actions for April include a rally for "Women's Equality, Women's Lives" on April 9 sponsored by South Coast, Long Beach and Orange County chapters of N.O.W. It will be held at the Plaza of the Flag in Orange County Santa Ana Civic Center. For more info, call South Coast N.O.W. at (714) 859-9372.

Rescue. So it really hasn't been that hard.

S.A.: How is Boston N.O.W. helping to build the April 9 march and rally in D.C.?

Convisser: We will probably be sending down over 12,000 people to the march. We're organizing on about 40 different campuses in the Boston area. When we hear that young people today—particularly young women— are not interested in this issue, that's really baloney.

The campuses have really come through strongly, and it's really been very rewarding to see this whole generation of young women coming along who are willing to work on this issue. Just because they haven't personally experienced the absence of legal abortion, they are still very frightened of losing this ngnl They are also very committed to the larger issues, not just limiting themselves to keeping abortion legal. They are also talking about access to abortion and all the other related questions.

The other thing that we're doing is trying to subsidize people to go to Washington. We want to make sure that people who don't have the money to pay for transportation don't miss the march. These subsidies will include at least one busload of flight attendants from Eastern Airlines.

S.A.: That's probably unprecedented.

Convisser: It's also another women's network that has been created. We're really seeing the march as a tool for the further organizing that we have to be doing in a couple of ways.

One is just in terms of sheer numbers. We're all under attack. Two, we need to be fighting for an entire progressive agenda that includes all of the issues-economic equity, civil rights issues—an agenda in which we don't have to trade one issue off for another.

That can only be achieved by having a true coalition of people who are coming from different places. Often when we're dealing with legislatures, even within the progressive community, choice issues get traded off.

On the local level, the abortion issue will become highlighted in every election in a way it hadn't been previously. We are committed here to not trade off our issues. And to me a pivotal issue is the issue of choice in its broadest definition.

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Shirley Rosser, President, Cincinnati NOW:

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Ellen Convisser, President, Boston NOW: '3500 people lined Beacon St. to stop Operation Rescue'

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RIGHTS are HUMAN RIGHTS