Attacks on abortion rights escalate, Operation Rescue aided by gov't

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zealots have been arrested for illegally far this adblockading two medical clinics that per- ministration ic's patients will jobs or their healthcare), and the governot be the only ment actively intervenes to help do it, no When U.S. District Judge Patrick go to support and pander to the anti-abor- closers. An injury to one is an injury to one's rights are secure! Kelly issued an injunction prohibiting tionists. ... We see in this case that they all. This age-old foundation of workers' Operation Rescue is trying to take Operation Rescue (OR) from blocking are willing to promote mob rule and law- solidarity is the real lesson in this attack. women's rights away. The boss is using access to the two clinics and physically lessness against women and their doctors Consider this scenario. Workers in a scabs to take worker's jobs away. The particular job have had their fill of conces- government is giving aid, comfort, and eral government stepped in. But not to The ramifications of this act of the sions, but the boss wants more. After support to both of them. uphold access to the clinics. No, the feds Bush administration should not be under- exhausting all efforts to get a decent conestimated. It should be seen for what it tract, the union resorts to its last line of The Justice Department filed a friend-of- is—a blatant smack in the face of all defense-a strike. The government inter- What can we do about it? The key is to the-court brief. This is an unprecedented working people venes on the side of the boss, placing all organize independently of the Democratic intervention by the U.S. government on Reproductive services, including abor- manner of injunctions against the union's and Republican parties. Neither women the side of the most reactionary anti- tion, are an essential part of decent health exercise of the fundamental right to with- nor workers-men and women-can rely woman group in the United States today. care. The rich have never had the problem hold labor and protect union jobs. The on anyone but ourselves to defend our OR's sole purpose is to stop women of access to abortion or any medical pro- company tries to operate the job with rights. from exercising their constitutional right cedure they need. But working scabs, so the government, through the The Democrats and Republicans who to abortion. They have blockaded clinics, women employed and unemployed are cops and courts, comes in on the side of run the government, national and local, harassed, and physically assaulted women the ones who get their medical care at the scabs throughout the country. Their printed clinics such as the ones OR is trying to This is becoming more and more the defend us. The courts have ruled against real situation for workers today. What our rights. The administration is blatant If Operation Rescue, backed by the feds, does it have to do with women and abor- about where it stands. vices. women's right to abortion. In so doing. 20 SOCIALIST ACTION SEPTEMBER 1991 KANSAS CITY—Women in Wichita, Kan., have been besieged since mid-July by a combination of Operation Rescue (OR) blockades of three abortion clinics and local, state, and federal complicity with the unlawful tactics. Abortion rights supporters have responded with mass rallies, demanding that the government enforce the legal rights of women to enter the clinics unmolested.

Well over 2600 blockaders have been arrested. Forty-four percent of those arrested by Aug. 15 had given out-of-state addresses. Over 400 people were arrested more than once, some as many as eight times. One blockader received a one-year jail sentence for defying U.S. District Judge Patrick F. Kelly's injunction against obstructing access to the clinics.

Judge Kelly's role as a governmental defender of a woman's legal right to choose has been a lonely one, with most politicians either taking anti-choice positions or disappearing into the woodwork.

Joan Finney, the Democratic Party governor of Kansas, took the microphone in front of 1500 Operation Rescue supporters on Aug. 2, telling them that she was anti-abortion and that she would sign anti-abortion legislation into law if given the chance.

The Rev. Patrick Mahoney, an OR leader, told The Kansas City Star: "This is the first time a standing governor has ever come out and addressed Operation Rescue while an operation is underway. .... Gov. Finney is a friend of Operation Rescue."

Local officials also have played key roles in encouraging the clinic blockades. Wichita Mayor Bob Knight, who had recently voted in favor of a defeated City Council ordinance that would have outlawed abortions, issued instructions to the chief of police that officers were to allow OR participants to block clinic entrances before The stakes are high for working people as a measure torm abortions.

harassing clinic staff and patients, the fed- as well."

came in on the side of the blockaders!

material claims Wichita to be their most shut down.

successful rescue' project ever!"

OR and the KKK In issuing the injunction, Judge Kelly cited an early civil rights law, enacted during Reconstruction, to stop the Ku Klux Klan from assaulting and violating the civil rights of Blacks. The anti-Klan law is perfectly suited to Operation Rescue.

The Klan used violence (and still does) to stop Blacks from exercising their newly won rights. OR uses blockades to stop women from exercising their right to abortion and other reproductive health serPatricia Ireland, Executive Vice President of the National Organization for Women, said, "the Justice Department has weighed in on the side of the vigilantes."

She characterized the department's action defenders at the Abortion Healt making any efforts to assure safe passage.

Wichita abortion clinics had closed their doors during the first week of Operation Rescue protests. When they re-opened on July 22, the police (as instructed by their mayor) allowed clinic entrances to be blocked before using mounted cops to clear pathways for patients. Then, arrested blockaders were allowed to take miniature, time-consuming steps towards police vehicles, as dozens of their companions took their places in the driveways.

Finally, in the face of repeated inaction by the police, Judge Kelly called in federal marshals to enforce his injunction against obstruction. Observers from national abortion rights groups have stated that the use is willing to 6000 rally in Wichita WICHITA, Kan.—On Aug. 24, people gathered here from throughout the Midwest to show Operation Rescue's fanatics exactly what the pro-choice majority looks like.

"We will fight back!" chanted the 6000 women and men who rallied in downtown Wichita. Banners held by local people proclaimed, "Wichitans for Choice!" The event was sponsored by the Pro-Choice Action League.

Patricia Ireland, president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), was cheered when she reported OPEN TUES THRU SALI 199) 188 - 1919 I1 ICESCOR ACC MPA TASTI DE CLINICA are clinic Brooklyn, N.Y. where-as in of federal marshals to enforce-and not just serve-injunctions against anti-abortionists is a nationwide first.

Government gives a "signal"

But on Aug. 6, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a legal brief in U.S. District Court in Wichita stating that federal officials should not be used in what were state, not federal, matters. Legal experts attacked this "technicality" argument, pointing out that the government had given a signal to the blockaders that they could violate Judge Kelly's order.

Judge Kelly himself said, "I am disgusted by this move by the United States." He appeared on several national news shows, succeeds in shut- tion rights? that simultaneous rallies were being held in many towns and cities of the United States—including Bush's summer home of Kennebunkport, Maine.

Ellie Smeal, of the Fund for the Feminist Majority, addressed OR's claim that they follow in the footsteps of the Black civil rights movement. "We remember this," she said, "We were the people that organized to get the Black children in the schools. They [OR] were the people standing in the doorways."

"Wichita is a decisive battle," she summed up. "We have to be at the clinics." The implication was that pro-choice supporters must defend the clinics in this city and throughout the United States.-TINA BEACOCK CLINIC ESCORT ACOMPAÑANTI DE CLINICA condemning the Bush administration brief as a political tool threatening to incite bloodshed between pro-choice and antichoice activists outside the clinics. On Aug. 15, a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Kelly was filed by NOW, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Abortion Rights Action League, and Planned Parenthood.

The Bush administration's entry into the battle over usage of federal marshals to defend women's legal rights is far more significant than the attempts of Operation Rescue to achieve their goals or sway public opinion. Clinics are open in Wichita, Independence is key have proven unwilling and unable to Independence means massive mobilizations for our issues. It also means solidarity for all working people and all women who act to defend their nights and their living standards. It should lead in the direction of a definitive break from the Democrats and Republicans—-the political parties of the bosses. To continue trying to find a supportable representative from either of these two parties is to enter the ring against a formidable opponent with one arm tied behind our back.

The unions must come to the defense of they will be helping to assure the kind of firm alliance between the unions and the women's rights movement that both will need in order for either to secure their nights.- The editors (continued on page 5)

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in Wichita, Kan. Over 2000 anti-abortion of just how EDITORIAL ung even one Everything. If scabs or rightwingers try clinic, that clin- to take away people's rights (such as their

THIS CLINIC IS OPEN