Women march in Chicago to defend choice

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Clip and return to: Socialist Action, 3425 Army St., SOCIALIST ACTION DECEMBER 1991 3 CHICAGO— Over 700 women and their supporters participated in a demonstration and rally Nov. 18 in defense of abortion rights.

Several major pro-choice groups had initially called the rally for Oct. 2. But it failed to take place because Planned Parenthood and others withdrew. As a result, the Pro-Choice Committee came together to call the Nov. 18 event.

The chair of the rally was Alison Carston, secretary of the Illinois National Organization for Women (NOW). She explained that the Pro-Choice Action Committee was a diverse group of organizations and individuals that came together to demand that abortion be safe, legal, accessible, and funded.

Colleen Kelly Johnson from Wichita NOW described how Operation Rescue (OR) laid siege to that city during the summer. She said that OR's aims were to force women into compliance with their own biblical model; to eliminate abortion, contraception, and sex education; and to make a "form of their religion the state religion."

Operation Rescue's clinic blockaders, Johnson said, were invited by a few fundamentalist ministers, and "expected that, because the mayor and vice mayor were anti-choice, they would be welcomed with open arms. No one mentioned to them that 67 percent of Wichita was pro-choice." By the time they left, she pointed out, that number had risen to 75 percent.

Many speakers and signs linked the abortion rights struggle with other struggles. Helen Ramirez, a Chicago teacher and member of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), explained why unions should support the right to choose:

"Now some people say reproductive rights are not a union issue. I'm here to tell you it is a union issue. Working women lack adequate healthcare. We don't have parental and family leave policies; we don't have adequate childcare. 'Every time we get pregnant," she said, "our ability to hold on to our job is affected.

"Labor had stood up against the gag rule and for the right of privacy when it comes to lie-detector tests, personal property and drug testing. ... We expect labor to also stand up when it comes to reproductive rights."

Illinois NOW President Gay Bruhn got a rousing response when she urged people to go to Washington, D.C., on April 5 for the national march called by NOW.

The crowd was overwhelming young, with contingents from Northwestern University, De Paul University, and campuses from Peoria to Indiana. There was a great response from people along the route. Young women ran out of stores and restaurants to cheer us.

The coalition that organized the rally included activists from Illinois NOW, local NOW chapters, the Emergency Clinic Defense Coalition, pro-choice student groups, CLUW, Queer Nation, Health Workers Pledge, Solidarity, Socialist Action, and several other groups.

While Chicago NOW eventually endorsed the action, it was reluctant to build it. Other groups, like the Pro-Choice Alliance, NARAL, and Planned Parenthood would not even lend their names. Apparently, they feared it would undercut efforts to work on local electoral campaigns against anti-choice incumbents.

CINCINNATI-For four days-from Wednesday, Nov. 20, to the following SatName Address City State Phone San Francisco, CA 94110. (415) 821-0458 defend women's clinics against Operation Rescue's attacks.

For the first time, the Cincinnati chapter of NOW, in conjunction with the University of Cincinnati-based Coalition for Choice, called on all pro-choice individuals and groups to link arms at the targeted clinic sites in order to keep them open and providing services vices to all their patients.

Earlier in the week, the anti-abortionists held a well-attended Tri-State Rescue rally to launch their National Days of Rescue. One of the organizers noted that at their last "rescue effort," they had encountered something new a wall of "homosexual activists" calling themselves the "Coalition for Choice."

Indeed, on that occasion, the campusbased Coalition for Choice defended the clinic singlehandedly. The clinic directors had publicly asked people to stay home, and the Freedom of Choice Coalition, based in the city, had concurred. Seeking a compromise, NOW only called on trained members to stay on the opposite side of the street from the clinic and act as official observers.

At the conclusion of the recent round of attacks student leaders were enthusiastically received at a rally sponsored by NOW. The students had provided an example of the kind of mobilizing effort that is needed to stop Operation Rescue.

At the onset of the latest clinic attacks, NOW voted to mobilize pro-choice supporters into an effective clinic defense team, despite the fact that the clinic directors again called on people to stay at home (as did all the other city-wide pro-choice organizations).

NOW and the Coalition for Choice have together taken the lead in educating pro-choice supporters not to rely on the police or court injunctions to defend our abortion rights, but instead to outmobilize the right wing at the clinic sites.-Margaret O'Kain CHICAGO-Operation Rescue (OR) targeted the week of Nov. 17-23 as part of their nationwide campaign to shut down women's clinics. Reports from several regions indicate that their attempt fizzled. In the San Francisco Bay Area, for example, the OR zealots didn't even show up at the clinics.

Here in Illinois, women mobilized to defend the clinics throughout the state. In Chicago, where two clinics were attacked on Nov. 23, the Emergency Clinic Defense Coalition successfully kept the clinics open. The Coalition brought out well over 300 people to outmobilize OR.

OR also hit a number of clinics in suburban Chicago during the week, where they were met by clinic escorts organized by the Pro-Choice Alliance and local NOW chapters. -T.B. $8 for one year Zip Union/Organ.

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