Protests push bigots back
Buffalo United for Choice defends clinics
By Ellie
Dorritie
Buffalo, N.Y.
Pro-choice forces here are prevailing over a nationally
coordinated offensive by right-wing fundamentalists who want to
reverse women's hard-fought right to abortion.
Reactionaries thumping Bibles and holding up grotesque
posters have showed up at several local clinics, two chain
bookstores and several suburban high schools. But everywhere
they appeared they were confronted by pro-choice activists.
The battle lines were drawn last October when anti-abortion
leaders held a news conference calling on their followers to
besiege Buffalo April 18-25.
That announcement was made one week after Dr. Barnett
Slepian, a popular obstetrician and gynecologist, was
assassinated in his home by a sniper. At the time of his
assassination, Slepian was the only physician in the area
providing abortions for women on Medicaid.
The main suspect in the case has been identified as a
professional anti-abortion organizer linked to other murders in
the United States and Canada.
Buffalo United for Choice '99 was formed to prepare for the
onslaught of these bigots. The coalition drew on the
experiences of a 1992 victory against a similar attempt by the
right wing to shut down women's health clinics in this
city.
The earlier coalition--Buffalo United for
Choice--successfully organized clinic defense that booted the
bigots out of this city.
The current right-wing campaign, euphemistically called
"Operation Save Amer ica," has targeted more than women's
health clinics. Right-wing spokespeople also announced that
bookstore chains carrying books that teach sex education or
present lesbian and gay lives in a positive light would be
targeted.
The current coalition was built by many of the communities
being demonized by the right wing.
And--an important point--the coalition's political demands
take a resolute stand against racism, sexism, anti-Semitism and
gay bashing--as well as defending women's right to reproductive
freedom.
Are police the answer?
A recent federal court ruling, while supposedly aimed at
preventing violence, has made it more difficult for those
defending the clinics to welcome and protect the women who use
them. It mandates that pro-choice as well as anti-abortion
forces must stay 60 feet from the clinics--which usually means
across the street.
So rather than being greeted by pro-choice activists, as
happened in earlier mobilizations, women arriving at clinics
for services find the sidewalks in front of the health clinics
looking like a war zone.
Women must walk through phalanxes of city police, sheriffs,
state troopers, federal marshals and FBI agents to enter the
clinics. Police helicopters circle the clinics, photographing
those below.
The pro-choice forces face the threat of arrest if they even
step off the curb. Cops armed with video cameras film activists
defending clinic access.
This has made clinic defense by pro-choice activists more
difficult.
In the past, pro-choice activists linked arms in front of
the clinics. They were the first line of defense of women's
right to reproductive freedom. It was clear that the women and
their supporters were holding back the anti-abortion forces
arrayed against them.
The experience was empowering for many, many women.
Now that the defenders and the attackers are all forced onto
the same sidewalks across the street from the clinics, drivers
and passersby can't always tell the pro-choice from the
anti-abortion forces.
Some activists initially felt reassured. Politicians and
police told the population to trust the cops to "protect" the
clinics.
But other pro-choice activists fear that the force of the
cops and courts may be wielded against the clinic
defenders.
The police and media have rewritten history by making it
seem as though it was pro-choice activists who ushered in the
violence in 1992.
Why has the ruling establishment of this city provided such
costly and large-scale police "protection" of the clinics? Is
it because they are so liberal and care so much about women's
lives?
Or do the powers that be fear that BUC '99 would be
immeasurably empowered by a hands-on defeat of the right-wing
challenge? Such a coalition could emerge as a new political
force.
`All unite to fight the right'
An April 17 outdoor event organized by BUC '99 rallied
pro-choice forces at Bidwell Park. More than 200 people of all
ages stood outside for several hours in the cold rain to listen
to speakers discuss links between the defense of reproductive
freedom and other struggles against injustice and
inequality.
Rally speakers emphasized the importance of fighting
lesbian, gay, bi and trans oppression, racism, and
anti-Semitism. They also called for stopping the execution of
political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Pentagon war against
the peoples of Yugoslavia.
Later that night, the lesbian, gay, bi and trans communities
organized a women's drag show entitled "Wrecking Ball in Drag."
The event was a fund-raiser for BUC '99. The program was
dedicated to Slepian.
The drag show--a mix of raucous fun and impressive
performance--drew a standing-room-only crowd that rose in
ovations to cheer the masculine and feminine lesbian cast.
The lesbian, gay, bi and trans communities here have played
such a critical role in the current mobilization against the
right wing that some justifiably fear that reactionaries might
try to bash individuals leaving gay and trans bars and
clubs.
Rather than accept an offer from police to post squad cars
and cops outside the establishments, however, these communities
formed "Rainbow Peace Keepers."
Lesbian/gay/bi/trans squads, strengthened by other BUC '99
forces, will escort people safely to and from the bars and
clubs. The group's mission statement makes clear, "The Rainbow
Peace Keepers tenet is non-violence, but that does not mean
`passive.'"
Speaking to the audience at the drag show, lesbian-trans
activist Leslie Feinberg said that at a time of rising
right-wing violence in many cities and campuses, the creation
of self-defense groups by the Buffalo lesbian/gay/bi/trans
communities might well spark other such community initiatives
across the country.
Clinic defense began on April 19 at 5 a.m. The handful of
"antis" who showed up were drowned out by pro-choice activists
chanting, "Not the church, not the state, women will decide our
fate," and, "Gay, straight, Black, white, all unite to fight
the right."
Wherever else rightist forces appeared, pro-choice activists
opposed them.
Anti-abortion elements were legally distanced from city
public schools. But they verbally assaulted students at two
suburban Kenmore high schools.
Students reportedly shouted down the reactionaries, ripped
up their literature, and disposed of it in garbage cans
specially provided by the schools for the occasion. They held
their own impromptu pro-choice demonstrations at both high
schools.
At least one principal asked BUC '99 activists to escort
students safely into the school.
The next day, students from five high schools skipped
classes in order to join the clinic defense squads.
Buffalo women and their supporters continue to build and
galvanize BUC '99. They are determined to defeat all attempts
by the right wing to roll back abortion access and foment
racism, bigotry, censorship and repression.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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