Pro-choice activists gear up for Nov. 12 protest in D.C
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April 2, 1989, pro-choice demonstration in San Francisco. Nov. 12 rally may In the face of the government assault on the right of women to control their own bodies, the most important event ahead is the Nov. 12 demonstration in Washington, D.C., called by the National Organization for Women (NOW).
Following the Supreme Court's Webster anti-abortion decision, NOW President Molly Yard called for 1 million people to mobilize on Nov. 12.
Pro-choice organizations, including NOW chapters across the country, have responded to Yard's call. After initial opposition, Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) have endorsed Nov. 12, creating broad unity for the event among all the major pro-choice groups.
In upholding the power of the states to restrict abortion, the Supreme Court intended to defuse the strength of a national movement that could place the onus for the attack on the federal government. By calling for 1 million to demonstrate in Washington on Nov. 12, NOW has kept a national focus for the pro-choice movement.
Electoral pressures that could shift this focus—and detract from building Nov. 12— have begun to surface within the NOW leadership, however. NOW spokesperson Susie Averell told Socialist Action on Aug. 28 that "elections [in New Jersey, Florida, and Virginia] come first this fall," and that "NOW is organizing the political machinery in each state" to press for pro-choice elected officials and legislation.
Threats by Operation Rescue Operation Rescue (OR), the anti-woman outfit that blockades clinics in the effort to prevent abortion, was buoyed by the Webster decision. It carried out its biggest (though unsuccessful) attack yet on Aug. 12 in Los Angeles [see article page 3].
In Boston, OR was able to get a justice of ABORTION:
• ILC Woman's Right to Choose Art 2 Committee SEPTEMBER 1989 IRT OrT RiG Cho be one Brazil, See pp. 14 - 15.
VOL. 7, No. 9 50 CENTS LATIO nant thi Joe Ryan/Socialist Action of largest protests in U.S. history.