Confronting the Abortion Rights Emergency in LA
April 25, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
April 11, 2013, Los Angeles CA
Friday, April 11, United University Church: A diverse group of men and women listened to Sikivu Hutchinson, blogger and author of Moral Combat: Black Atheists, Gender Politics, and the Values Wars, read “Thank God for Abortion”; Carol Downer spoke about her experience before Roe v. Wade, the early years of the feminist health collective, and what it meant to be a provider for over 40 years. Two women who had abortions prior to Roe v. Wade told horror stories of self- or friend-induced abortions and a trip to Tijuana. Then we watched Sunsara Taylor’s speech in New York on the webcast. The first question was a rousing “what are we going to do about this situation?” from a woman who has demonstrated since the early days along with gay men, who saw the movement for gay and women’s liberation and pro-choice as all part of the same struggle. We talked for the next two hours, strategizing about how to turn the tide and making concrete plans to go to a campus twice a week for the next month as a start.
The church was decorated with 18x24 pictures of those who died from abortions and Dr. Gunn and Dr. Tiller. The statistics from the Fact Sheet and Revolution newspaper enlargements greeted people as they entered the church.
April 12, Santa Monica Pier CA
In preparation for the street performance, a friend who could not make the day made beautiful silver paper chains and a bucket of blood from a recipe with gelatin.
We chose the entrance to Santa Monica Pier because of the huge number of people from all over the world who pass by on the way to the pier. When we got there, we saw several antis with their huge Jesus posters standing 20 feet above the pavement. So, we positioned ourselves so the pedestrians had to walk between us and the antis with their signs. The response was two-sided, but even most of the people who agreed with us said they knew what was going on or that it’s still legal what’s the emergency. We had to put it back to people what are they doing about it and struggle around the emergency. Some thanked us for being there and a woman joined us who had heard that we were doing the performance the night before from another member of Drinking Liberally. She said she’d been so upset over the attacks on abortion, went on line to find us, and was relieved to be doing something about it. One male patriarch with his family in tow stopped to rant: if you see a baby in a crib would you cut off its arm, going on and on about how that was what happened in abortion. When we broke the chains and read the pledge groups of people stood and listened to portions of it.
Then we took our 'Abortion on Demand and Without Apology' signs and walked through the promenade where hundreds of people were shopping and hanging out. We chanted and passed out flyers. One older woman yelled "Finally" and grabbed the leaflet. At the end we stopped near another small group of people holding Jesus signs and read the pledge again. Great day!
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