Confronting Abortion Opponents at Roe v. Wade Events
On Friday, January 22, tens of thousands of anti-abortion protesters rallied in D.C., as they do every year on the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion 37 years ago. Some 100 people, mostly women, countered them with a pro-choice event in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, going up in the face, literally, of being menaced, getting death threats, and being prayed at. They went face-to-face with young people— many bused in from Catholic schools—who have been brainwashed to believe that allowing a woman to choose whether or not to have a child is “killing babies.” One pro-choice high school student brought a home-made sign that said “Trust Women” on one side, and “Women Are Not Incubators,” on the other.
On Saturday, January 23, a West Coast “March for Life” brought thousands of people against abortion into San Francisco. Earlier at the same spot, 200 people rallied against them in a “Day of Action for Reproductive Justice—Stop the War on Women,” where speakers included State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano. In addition, a few dozen pro-choice activists ranging in age from 20 to 81 infiltrated the beginning of the “March For Life” and staged an action that briefly halted the march—they held a banner reading “Anti Choice Bigots Not Welcome in San Francisco” crosswise, until police roughly yanked them off the street.
The previous day in Oakland, a hundred pro-choice activists surrounded the area’s largest abortion clinic, protecting it and upholding the right to abortion while anti-abortion activists protested there.
For more on these events, see Debra Sweet’s blog at worldcantwait.org.
