A look inside Operation Rescue: Pro-lifers or new-style terrorists?

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When Operation Rescue (OR) announced that it planned to hold a "Holy Week of Rescue" over Easter Week here in Los Angeles, I decided to try to find out more about this so-called "pro-life" movement.

I've always been a believer in the direct approach to solving problems in general and wanted to see with my own eyes what OR looked like on their own turf (not just as the pretty picture they try to present in the media).

I also wanted to see what its "new leadership" was like and to compare their approach and style with the misnamed "right-to-lifers" that l'd confronted in the late 1960s and early '70s as a member of the Women's National Abortion Action Coalition (WONAAC).

But, I wondered, how safe was it to do that? Could I, as a pro-choice activist, pull off going "under cover" in order to observe them without their knowledge of who I really was?

Opportunities abounded, as they had hired a huge church for a series of night-time rallies held the night before each of the three morning "rescue blockades." I decided to try to attend a few of these rallies.

After a great deal of thought, I chose a set of appropriate clothes, picked a name, made some partial identification papers, stripped my car of any tell-tale leaflets and newspapers, and selected an Evangelical Church— complete with a pastor's name-as cover.

Rally at Melodyland

Driving into the parking lot at Melodyland, an enormous church in Orange County, I was struck by the fact that it is directly across from one of Southern California's biggest tourist attractions, Disneyland.

On one side of the street, people were gathered to have an evening of fun with their children on amusement-park rides. On the other side of the street, people were gathering to organize against the rights of women to choose what to do with their own bodies.

I was nervous as I parked my car and repeated my cover story several times to myself, expecting to be grilled at the door. I even had memorized a fake social-security number in case I was asked. Much to my surprise, there was no problem getting in. The problem was forcing myself to appear to be on the side of the anti-choice crowd throughout the evening.

I had expected to come home that evening enraged (but also to be laughing) at the pathetic antics of the preachers and other speakers on the program. Instead I went home very sobered by what I had seen. The methods used by OR are quite different from the fundamentalist "holy roller" style I had seen years earlier. They were appealing to a different crowd and had honed their techniques to perfection.

All is not rosy for them, however. The enormous church was filled to about onefourth of its capacity, with only about 1200 people in attendance. This was a far cry from the 3500 to 5000 people OR had announced would be there.

"Christians, we must try"

But who was there? This was what I had come to find out. After going through a phalanx of ushers handing out psalters (a pamphlet of anti-choice prayers and hymns) and a smaller group called a Rosary Brigade," I came to a row of literature tables.

They sold several books, a large variety of buttons with grotesque photographs of fetuses, and audio and video tapes. The hottest item being hawked was a new video on and by OR-which was touted as the "most • The author's true name has not been used. Operation Rescue claims to be non-violent, but individual members have taken credit for bombings of clinics and other acts of violence. ARCA RIGHTS senh Duan Socialist Action