-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 20, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------BUFFALO, N.Y.
No let-up in struggle to secure abortion rights
By Bev Hiestand
Buffalo, N.Y.
Jan. 22 is the 27th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion. As women look back over the events of the past decade, they may wonder if their hard-won right to a safe and legal abortion will survive the right-wing campaign to overturn it.
Clinic bombings, assassinations of doctors, continued threats against clinic workers and the right wing's unrelenting efforts to pass legislation limiting abortions--all these attacks have placed a great hardship on women who try to find and access abortion services.
In spite of this, an estimated 1,184,758 legal abortions were performed in l997. Officials have noted, however, that this represents a 3-percent drop from the number of abortions performed in l996. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has cited several factors for the decline, including reduced access to abortion.
Women and their progressive allies everywhere are looking for ways to reverse this trend. They want to secure, once and for all, the right of all women to control their own bodies and reproductive choices.
While the exact tactics of how to move forward may not be agreed upon yet, there are certainly promising examples of victories this past year that show the way.
In Buffalo, N.Y., Buffalo United for Choice--for the second time in less than a decade--organized a successful defense against a national assault of right-wing forces. These reactionaries had threatened to close all the women's health clinics that provide abortion services in the city.
In both the 1992 and 1999 mobilizations BUC organizers emphasized the importance of not relying on the state--the cops and courts--to defend the clinics. Instead, the progressive coalition organized, trained and deployed its own clinic defenders.
BUC exposed the right wing's whole agenda. The coalition explained in its leaflets and statements that the attack on women's rights was part and parcel of the reactionary political program that includes racism, anti-Semitism and anti-gay and lesbian bigotry.
And the coalition also exposed the right wing as book burners. BUC activists pointed out that the reactionaries sought to remove books on sex education and other positive literature about the spectrum of human sexuality from shelves of local bookstores.
During the April right-wing mobilization, anti-choice forces threatened gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans activists and businesses, especially the bars.
Lesbian, gay, bi and trans people had been out every day defending the abortion clinics. And when it came time to form Rainbow Peacekeepers, the lesbian, gay, bi and trans community self-defense squads were strengthened by the participation of heterosexual women and men.
The successful defense of the clinics and the bars by clinic defenders and peacekeepers gave support to the heroic clinic workers as they continued to offer women's health care services, including abortion.
And these victories re-energized Medical Students for Choice. As a result, the University of Buffalo has been successful in getting lectures on abortion included in the curriculum.
Today, 27 years after the historic victory for women's reproductive freedom, that basic right still has to be defended--tooth and nail.
The progressive community here has united twice to boot the anti-choice reactionaries out of Buffalo. And it's no secret how these successes were accomplished.
We shouted the key to victory every day as we linked arms to defend women's health clinics: "Gay, straight, Black, white, all unite to fight the right!"
Bev Hiestand is a steering committee member of Buffalo United for Choice '99.
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