by Mary Lou Greenberg
Atlanta, January 22, 1997
In the aftermath of the January 16 clinic bombing here, there's a lot of anger, renewed unease, and, amidst a chorus of calls for more police protection, a lot of questions about how the people should respond. One answer given here on Roe v. Wade Day, January 22: A small group showed that it's possible to confront the anti-abortion movement and get out a strong voice of outrage at the bombings and support for abortion providers.
Refuse & Resist! united with members of Anti-Racist Action to mobilize others
to come out and protest the annual right-to-"life" noon rally and march at
the State Capitol in downtown Atlanta. About 16-20, with shades of hair
ranging from neon red to purple to brown and black, multi-national and both
male and female, established ourselves on a corner on the same side of the
street as the Capitol. A similarly-sized group mobilized by NOW and some
Altanta clinic defenders stood across the street. Passing cars got the
pro-choice message from all directions.
R&R! members brought signs that read "Stop the Bombings - Defend Abortion Providers" and "Clinic Bombings, Church Burnings - It's All One Attack." Others signs included "Stop the Anti-Choice Fascists" and "Choice = Freedom." Most of those going into the anti rally from a pro-"life" mass down the street had to pass through the R&R!-ARA crew who challenged them with vigorous chants and agitation. Our chants included "Pro-Life, That's a Lie, You don't care if women/Doctors die!" and "Pro-Life, Who you Kiddin?? You bomb clinics and terrorize women!" (The Atlanta Constitution reported that about 500 antis attended, fewer than past years.)
Agitation challenged the antis (priests, nuns, middle-aged men and women
pushing strollers loaded with babies) to face their responsibility for
helping create a climate which encourages clinic bombings and the murder of
abortion providers: "When you call abortion 'baby killing' you justify
attacks on clinics!" There were many children and teenagers in the crowd,
Catholic school students who'd gotten the day off to protest. (Catholic
schools traditionally send busloads of students to January 22 rallies
nationwide, including to the big DC event.) To them, we chanted "Rebel
against your parents," "Think for yourselves," and "Women don?t have to be
breeders!"
At one point I went over to two young women who were passing out bags of literature to people going to the rally. "Let's trade leaflets," I said, offering them the R&R! flyer. After a moment's hesitation, they gave me a bag and took our flyers. Immediately, an older man scurried up, took the leaflets out of their hands and scolded them with, "that's pro-choice!" "What's the matter," I answered, "are you afraid of them reading it?" "Let them read it," others chimed in. "Why don't you want women reading it?" I offered another flyer, one of the women took it again, and they both backed away from the "protective" patriarch.
After the rally, the antis formed up in the street, preparing for their usual silent march around downtown Atlanta. The chorus of chants continued non-stop. As the march stepped out, our crew ran into the street ahead of the lead "life" banner. Placards protesting the bombing and supporting providers "led" the march for an entire block (until cops stopped the march and threatened us with arrest if we didn't stop "interfering" with it and get on the sidewalk), with the festive scene featured on TV news later that day. But they weren't rid of the pro-choice presence, as we continued with chants and placards alongside the head of the march until it concluded. Pro-choice signs, chants and interviews were included in all major radio and TV news programs.
In the evening, the Georgia Abortion & Reproductive Rights Action League (GARAL) held a rally at the Atlanta City Hall, followed by a candlelight march to the Capitol several blocks away. Nearly 100 attended. The R&R! & ARA crew attended with our signs. At one point, one of the speakers, Tyrone Brooks, the President of the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials, pointed to one of our signs and, quoting it, said, "Clinic bombings, church burnings, it's all one attack." "That says it all," he commented, "it's the same mentality behind them all."
Georgia Congressman John Lewis told the crowd that "no government, Federal or state, should tell a woman what to do with her body." Mary Davis of the Atlanta City Council told of having lost friends in the pre-Roe days to back-alley abortions, and said she agreed with the slogan, "no choice, no freedom." At the Capitol, US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney spoke. She began by saying that while we were there to celebrate Roe, we had to also remember "the six dead souls who lost their lives to clinic violence," and called for a moment of silence in their memory. She criticized the efforts to ban a method of late-term abortion (which the antis lie about as "partial birth" abortion), and said, like "parental notification and waiting periods, " it will be "another notch on the anti-abortion belt." Nan Orick of GARAL chaired the rally. She urged people to take up the battle to keep affirmative action, reiterating that the effort to abolish it, too, is part of the same "reactionary political attack." She concluded the event by calling on people to "fight against the reactionary tide in this country."
Washington, D.C.
The Washington Area Clinic Defense Task Force mobilized dozens of people to be at up to 8 clinics from Saturday January 18 through Wednesday January 22. The local anti-abortion activists who regularly harass area clinics, and who were to be joined by out-of-town antis for the inauguration and Roe v. Wade anniversaries, did not show up at area clinics, though they had threatened a show of force on inauguration day. WACDTF had volunteers at each clinic open, expecting the usual harassment of patients, and a possible blockade attempt. On the morning of January 22, just before the large anti-abortion March for Life was to begin, a small explosive device went off near the Planned Parenthood clinic in northwest Washington, D.C. There were hours of confusion. Later that day, government authorities announced that the device had been a fuse from a training grenade used by the military, and had detonated when a Salvadoran hotel worker happened to see it in a garbage can about 50 feet down the street from the clinic. Now the authorities are denying it had any connection to the clinic.
The Campus Activists to Liberate Life group gathered about 80 anti-abortion college students to pray at the Supreme Court on January 21. Their leaders reported that since they have college careers to concentrate on, they wouldn't be doing anything at local clinics to risk arrest. Tens of thousands of anti-abortion demonstrators were bused in to Washington for the usual January 22 protest of Roe v. Wade. The great majority of the crowd was either students under age 20 who came with school groups, or retired people. Many marched under Catholic Church banners, and most were from the east coast, with small groups from the Midwest. The most popular sign was from the Knights of Columbus, saying "The Natural Choice is Life".
I didn't see any pro-choice presence along the march route. I did see Michael Bray, convicted clinic bomber, marching with a sign saying "Free Paul Hill. Execute Abortionists (Murderers)" Bray is the author of the Defenders of the Defenders of Life statement, and part of a network of released abortion clinic bombers. At one point he was greeted warmly and as a "brother" from the crowd by Bob Jewell, an Operation Rescue National Leader. I snapped a picture of them embracing. So much for the "distancing" of the non-violent Operation Rescue from the open promoters of extreme violence against abortion providers.
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