The Anti Choice 'Walk for Life": Coming back in 2007!

Thank you for the information. Considering the Bay Area is supposed to be a bastion of support for abortion, we expect tens of thousands of people at our pro-abortion demonstration, opposing this fascist march, using abortion as a smokescreen. This year's march made it very clear that the fascists, both in police uniform and out of uniform, the latter sponsored primarily by the local Catholic Church, are using abortion as a smokescreen to promote fascism in and around San Francisco. This is an old game, and it must be stopped now, before these termites destroy our home, the San Francisco Bay Area. On the weekends now, the Catholic Church of San Francisco has tables on the sidewalks outside their churches, complete with posters on poles, openly promoting anti-abortion, the latest theme being stopping teenage abortions. It would be a good to start now to picket these anti-women fascists every Sunday. This is the first time in my memory, which goes back to the days before Roe v. Wade, that the Catholic Church has ever done any such thing on the sidewalks of San Francisco. It is clear that this is the latest tactic of the ruling class' fascist agenda. Abortion is a right, evolution is a fact and science means knowledge!

The anti-abortion organizers pulled quite a coup by having the rally in SF and it being so well attended and organized, all for media consumption. This shrewd move will be welcome fodder for the pundits to launch into a war on aobortion or some other crap. Thus, while the rally might have been important, it was more of a event for further media speculation. A complete sucess in every way.

The pro-choice crowd could not have been more stupid, reactionary, hateful and foul-mouthed. They played right into the hands of those who would want to portray them as fringe elements bent on killing babies, because their words and actions nearly said as much. While a most of the 200-300 counter proesters were typical of the protest of the week types, a subset of that put on their liberal brownshirts and marched around in lockstep pride. From the anarcho-homeless kids screaming about christian nazis to transvetsite nuns smoking, flipping off the anti-abortion marches while screaming obsentities, they showed how far into the dirt you can drag yourself without actually using violence.

So, for those using the media and religion to their advantage in organizing a focused political message on a hot-button issue, they'll get the prize for the day. For those of you following you gut and your heart on an issue you deem critical to the countries social and cultural future, you fucked yourself hard in the ass, in public too. For those of you acking reason and rationality, you get nothing, as you stayed home.

I work with BACORR and helped organize the counter protest to this years counter protest. I have a plea. Lets not call people termites, okay? We don't need to de humanize people in order to organize principled opposition.
I've been dealing with feelings that range from fear to grief to anger ever since I started organizing. I have had abortiions and talk about them, which has provoked feelings of vulnerability. But I've never found solace or insight by taking refuge in the idea that those who would deny me my rights and criminalize me and my body retroactively arent somehow human- they are, and I'm pretty sure that I ned to keep that in clear sight as I move forward.
Just a thought.
I do empathize with your anger and am unhappy at the news that they are setting up sidewalk counseling. BACORR has planning meetings every other wednesday at New Valencia Hall. If you want help and support in setting up sidewalk counseling of your own, let us know.
http://www.bacorrinfo@riseup.net">http://www.bacorrinfo [at] riseup.net

Good for you Elizabeth. Thank you for saying that we are not termites. I'd like to think that we all sincerely care about the issue of abortion - either pro or con.

Dolores

You can offer critisicm 'til youre blue in the face ,but doing that harshly will ensure no one listens. Whyn'cha do some work to guide the larger community towards something you think works. Otherwise, all you're doing is quarterbacking from the side lines. Get in the Game.

Abortion is not a right. No-one has the right to take life. Abortion is a form of violence like war, capital punishment, WMD, terror etc. It is also a denial of science and as such is backwards and belongs in the past. Science has shown the humanity of the unborn. It shows its movements, its development. Yet we still have those that place ideology before science and justice. Remember, the pro abortion lobby want legal late term abortion - no limitations. This is pro abortion fundamentalism. It is extremist ideolgy opposed by most in society. It is barbaric. And no, I am not a conservative. I oppose Bush, marched against the attack on Iraq, am a union rep and oppose capital punishment. Pro life consistency opposes all violence and acts which destry life - war, abortion, capital punishment, poverty, WMD, the arms trade.

Science has shown that not until 28 weeks- and possibly not till some time thereafter- fetuses don't have the capacity for pain and/or any cognitive development. This of course is a slap in the face to anti choice activists, who in a number of states have managed to pass laws requiring women to have pain medication "for the baby" administered to them, regardles of the psychic or physical impact on them. This is mediavl nonsense. To say that science is someohow subsumed by ideology is innacurate. And if you favour constricting such a basic right, you aren't progressive. The best progressive movements (like the civil rights movement which is wrongly seen as the trajectory of the modern anti choice movement and isn't) seek to enlarge and elaborate on existing rights , not constrict them. Fetal life is a subset of the life of the woman who is carrying it. The onset of human biological life is an event of concern NOT to the fetus, but to the woman carrying it. It simply isn't progressive to prohibit behavior. It IS progressive to widen the arena in which behavior operates, like fertility.

it is firstly an instrument of my agency, and is secondly, pledged to the notion of sustainability. It is absolutely okay to abort fetal life if it's a reflection of the woman's decison making capabilities. There isnt a SINGLE "life" system on this planet that doesnt edit itself strategically
Don't fool yourself and dont lie to us. You arent progressive.