Operation Rescue: What it is and how to fight it

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'Operation Rescue' fanatics taunt from the sidelines at the 600,000-strong pro-choice demonstration in Washington, D.C. on April 9.

rights from the major centers of governmental power has been to embolden the right wing's 16 SOCIALIST ACTION AUGUST 1989 NO TURN RE The following is a selection from the pamphlet, "The War Against Abortion Rights: How to fight 'Operation Rescue' and the 'Right to Life' movement," available from Walnut Publishing Co., $1.00.

The U.S. government, acting through all its branches, has become the main danger to women's right to choose. As we shall see below, a variety of institutions at the federal and state level have already been used to severely undermine the right to abortion. The Supreme Court's Webster decision was the most serious attack.

The rightist component of the anti-abortion movement has the ultimate aim of outlawing all abortion by passing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution which confers upon the fertilized egg the "right to life," thereby equating abortion with murder. The more sophisticated forces behind the anti-abortion movement prefer to steadily and constantly erode abortion rights—leaving open the question of how fast they can go. This, they figure, can be determined by the resistance they encounter.

The anti-abortion movement as a whole has run into many difficulties because, since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, an ever-increasing majority of the American people support the right to legal abortion. It is universally recognized that legalized abortion has lowered the maternal death rate.

In 1965 the number of women who died from complications due to illegal abortions comprised 20% of all deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth that year. [Oakland Tribune editorial Jan. 25, 1989.] While seeking to ultimately ban all abortions, the anti-abortion zealots have operated on many other fronts within the framework of "legal" challenges to abortion rights. Their biggest victory was the July 3 Supreme Court decision.

It is in this area in particular that they have received considerable governmental support. By a series of acts of the President, Congress, and various state legislatures, nearly all federal funding for abortion under entitlement programs such as Medicaid has been banned.

Regulations have also been passed against birth control clinics providing abortion information. State funding for abortion for poor women has been banned in all but eight states. Compliant legislators have passed restrictions on abortion in all states, including laws requiring teens to get parental consent. This, in effect, denies many teens (who account for one-third of all abortions) the right to abortion and to privacy.

The anti-abortionists have introduced thousands of pieces of anti-abortion legislation in state legislatures and nearly 500 such bills in the Congress.

Their most damaging victory until the Supreme Court Webster decision was their success in cutting off federal funds for abortion, through the Hyde Amendment in 1977. This automatically made the procedure inaccessible to those who could not afford the price.

Rosie Jimenez, a young mother and student, was the first documented case of a woman who died (since Roe V. Wade) because she was unable to afford a safe abortion. She went to a "back-alley" illegal operator in McClellan, Texas, who botched the procedure so badly that Rosie died from septic infection.

How many other women without financial resources have met Rosie's fate or will in the future unless federal funding for abortion is restored and restrictions-like the Webster decision-are removed?

Rightist Terrorism The effect of the attacks on abortion rights coming from the major centers of governmental power has been to embolden the rightwing's extra-legal tactics. The anti-abortion zealots are frustrated by the growing public support for women's right to choose abortion. However, they are encouraged by the continued anti-abortion actions of the government. These have led them to open a new front in their campaign.

Previously, the extra-legal campaign against abortion consisted of a wave of terrorist attacks carried out by small numbers of individuals. Since 1977 the National Abortion Federation has kept track of these terrorist acts. Between 1977 and 1987 they report 70 arsons and bombings, 213 bomb threats, 216 clinic invasions, 41 assaults and batteries, 2 kidnappings, 191 instances of vandalism, and 61 death threats. There have also been 624 pickets and blockades aimed at preventing or discouraging women from exercising their legal rights. These acts failed to win any significant support from the popthe attacks on abortion ulation and undermined the argument of the anti-abortion movement that they were interested in "saving lives."

Operation Rescue (O.R.) is the rightwing's latest illegal operation against women. It is the brainchild of evangelical fundamentalist Randall Terry, who, since the Webster decision, has become the main media spokesman for the anti-choice position.

O.R. aims to stop abortions by blocking the doors to abortion clinics. Staged by the pastors and congregations of fundamentalist sects and by some Catholic parishioners, these zealots pray and sing and, by their numbers, block the entrance to the clinics. This is blatantly illegal—to physically bar women from carrying out their constitutional rights—as illegal as it is to bar people from going into a voting booth to exercise their right to vote. The police have often been very siow to respond and have even cooperated demonstratively with the taunting zealots. Treating them with kid gloves, they have moved to arrest them so painfully slowly that after posting bail the blockaders have been able to return to join the illegal action again while it is still in progress.

Storm troopers for the right-wing Though O.R. has not been able to close more than one clinic at a time due to its small forces, it has succeeded in garnering a lot of publicity. This is obviously one of its main goals. But the harassment and threat to clinic users is significant. Their plan is to intimidate women seeking abortions and to intimidate the women's movement in general. In this way they hope to speed up the process of getting abortion outlawed through legal means. They have already scored significant results.

It is important to note the similarities of the anti-abortion movement with previous extreme right-wing and fascist groups. Though they demagogically try to compare themselves with the civil rights movement, (because of their use of the tactic of civil disobedience), they have nothing in common with this movement, whose goal is to secure rights for Blacks and not deny rights to anyone. O.R. is led by white men whose religious beliefs hold men to be superior to women. Misogyny fuels their movement.

Their use of intimidation tactics against individuals (women going to a clinic for an abortion) smacks of fanatic intolerance. And despite their claims to employ only passive, non-violent tactics, they have used strong-arm methods to push their way to clinic doors, attempting to physically remove clinic defenders.

If the Ku Klux Klan decided on election day to surround a polling place in a Black community and prevent Blacks from going in to exercise their right to vote, no one would question the right of the community and all supporters of democratic rights to remove the Klansmen. Operation Rescue must also be removed. Their tactic of intimidation must be answered in the only way that has proven effective so far—we must outmobilize them.

Door to conservative politics Extreme right-wingers have a special interest in anti-abortion activists. Here is what Richard Viguerie, right-wing fundraiser and publisher of the Conservative Digest says: "The abortion issue is the door through which many people come into conservative politics, but they don't stop there. Their convictions against abortion are like the first in a series of dominoes. Then we lead them to concern about sexual ethics and standards among young people. This leads to opposition to secular humanism. Then...we point out that secular humanism is identified as both the godfather and the royal road to socialism and communism which points the way to commitments to minimally regulated free enterprise at home and to aggressive foreign and military policies to counter the communist threat from Russia and its many surrogates." From anti-abortion protest to pro-war activism!

One danger inherent in O.R. is that it is already pre-organized through the specific fundamentalist church organizations that are its backbone. These religious fanatics consider the "rescue" of the fetus (not, we note, helping living children) to be a holy crusade. In their own words, if abortion isn't criminalized, "we will all share in God's punishment upon America, whether it be drought, war, AIDS, financial collapse, or some other calamity."

Religious fanatics

The Binghamton, N.Y., Operation Rescue brochure which issued this warning states (continued on page 4)

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