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Anti-Choice Religious Right protest women's right to abortion on Sunday 10/1/06 in SF

by JD
The right wing Religious Right is back to celebrate the loss of women's rights and the advancement of their agenda. This will happen in San Francisco on Sunday October 1st on Park Presidio Blvd. between Geary and Clement., from 2:30 to 3:30PM. BACORR and others will be there to support the "No on 85" campaign.
Wait a minute- was that "Life Chain", or "Women in Chains"?

Come out and counter the message of religious extremism for all. This group will be appearing in the Bay Area in the month of October for the Life Chain. Targeted cities include: San Francisco, Sacramento, Lincoln, Citrus Heights and Davis. The plan is to form a nationwide chain bearing signs with a message of intolerance for women and their rights as individuals.

In San Francisco, the Life Chain will be on October 1st on Park Presidio Blvd. between Geary and Clement.

BACORR and others will be there, we hope you will be too. We're having a picnic in support of the "No on 85" campaign (parental consent, the new prop 73). What a coincidence it will be at the same time and place as this demo!


From lifechain's website:
http://nationallifechain.org/

"What Is LIFE CHAIN?

Annually, on the first Sunday in October, LIFE CHAIN invites the churches in each city and town across North America to stand on a designated local sidewalk and pray for one hour, while holding one of the following approved pro-life sign messages:

* ABORTION KILLS CHILDREN
* JESUS FORGIVES AND HEALS
* ADOPTION: THE LOVING OPTION
* LORD, FORGIVE US AND OUR NATION
* ABORTION HURTS WOMEN
* PRAY TO END ABORTION
* LIFE—THE FIRST INALIENABLE RIGHT

"In 2005, well over 1,100 Life Chains were built in America and Canada, and the focus is now on National Life Chain Sunday 2006—to be held October 1, Lord willing, from 2:30 to 3:30 in each time zone across North America. To include your city in 2006, notify National Life Chain of your interest via email National Life Chain or call (530) 671-5500 and download (from this web site) a copy of the Life Chain Manual, along with "15 Steps To A Strong Life Chain." Thereafter, inform your local pastors of your Life Chain plans as early in the New Year as possible, and ask them to schedule your Chain on their church calendar. Early notification to pastors helps to emphasize that your Life Chain is important to you and, hopefully, that it will be to the pastors, also."

"During the Life Chain hour, idle chatter, frivolity, and both verbal and physical responses to motorists are strongly discouraged. LIFE CHAIN is a time for prayerful self-analysis, repentance, and serious commitment to helping end abortion in our nation."

"Accordingly, LIFE CHAIN is not chiefly a demonstration, and its witness is not intended for the viewing public only. Instead, its first goal is to minister to its own participants—to those who call Christ their Lord and hold pro-life messages that declare abortion a grave evil that defames the name and holiness of God (Leviticus 18:21). Indeed the Church that Christ founded has drifted into cold indifference toward the sacredness of human life, and the result has been the mindless surgical killing and mutilation of over 45 million preborn Americans, plus untold millions who have fallen victim to abortive chemicals and medical neglect."
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by JD
Help the title of this article got cut off- sorry probably my fault.
Could you revise to:
Anti-Choice Religious Right protest women's right to abortion on Sunday 10/1/06 in SF.
by woman who had an abortion
This is rediculous that they think they and they alone can define this incredibly complex issue. It ain't their history- its mine.
by JD
BACORR is currently attempting to plan and build a vibrant, multi-issue presence around the anniversary of Roe v. Wade on January 20, 2007 to counter the thousands of anti-choice fundamentalists who will descend on San Francisco for the third annual "Walk for Life--West Coast". We have a lot of creative and fun ideas, but we could use help. For more info, please check out our website. Thanks!
by JD
is located here:
http://tinyurl.com/rwzdl


...also I should have said "parental notification" not "parental consent".
by mahtin
Hi, I just looked at their list of locations and it says Park Presidio btw Clement and California, so people might want to walk down a block to check (or is it that bacorr wants to take the bigger intersection?)
by She-ra
I am reacting to this picture of a man on this page.

I am a woman and I don't need a man to come and fight my battles for me, protect me and, more than anything, to represent me. That stands for men on both sides.

No matter what you think, men, you will never know what it is like to face the stress of a pregnancy, an abortion or childbirth. It will never be YOUR body that is metamorphasized from the trauma of the many facets of female reproduction. You will never be descriminated against because of your pre, during and post pregnancy status. In other words, please don't talk about things that you have no experience with and never will have any experience with.

Yeah, I'm mad as hell at Jerry Falwell too, but I don't go off and scream at people in the streets about things I have -0- experience with.

Guys, if you TRULY want to support women, please consider the following suggestions:

-Wear a condom WILLINGLY (!!!!!) and educate other men about the importance of using condoms. You could even give them away. (I think this would be a very appropriate activity to do on the day of the march. You may end up helping out some of the women on the other side of the issue by giving them access to safe instead of unprotected sex.)

-Educate and demand that men PAY THE CHILD SUPPORT due their children. When men pay their fair share, then women will be able to make a decision about pregnancy based less on economic hardships and more on personal convictions.

-Demand equal pay for women. You have a lot of places you can do this. Your workplace, your union, the government. Remember, women don't truly have a free choice if their choice is based on economic hardships, directly related to their status as woman. (Women still make about $.68 for every dollar a white man makes.)

-Reach out on a personal level to the women around you. Talk, listen and support. Cook a meal, do some housework and watch her kids, if she has any.
by this_stat_please
... -Demand equal pay for women. You have a lot of places you can do this. Your workplace, your union, the government. Remember, women don't truly have a free choice if their choice is based on economic hardships, directly related to their status as woman. (Women still make about $.68 for every dollar a white man makes.) ...

I see this stat thrown around a lot and wonder about its source. It seems very political. I'm a programmer in sili-valley and the women I work with all make the same money I do, and the same has been true at all of my previous jobs too. The stats are probably skewed by the .01% of ultra rich (who are still mostly men).
by JD
Thanks mahtin. We will meet at the Geary location and walk down if necessary. See you there.
by JD
People. Have ya not heard of google?
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0763170.html

Silicon Valley folks can hardly be considered representative of the nation by the way. Financially speaking, they are the elite.
by She-ra
Source for
by this_stat_please
Saturday Sep 30th, 2006 9:59 PM
... -Demand equal pay for women. You have a lot of places you can do this. Your workplace, your union, the government. Remember, women don't truly have a free choice if their choice is based on economic hardships, directly related to their status as woman. (Women still make about $.68 for every dollar a white man makes.) ...

>I see this stat thrown around a lot and wonder about its source. It seems very political. I'm a programmer in sili-valley and the women I work with all make the same money I do, and the same has been true at all of my previous jobs too. The stats are probably skewed by the .01% of ultra rich (who are still mostly men).>

Here is my perspective. I hope it makes sense.

It's good to hear that your workplace is fair in regards to pay rates for men and women. But even when things are otherwise equal, women are still penalized for their reproductive status. For example, a woman might not even be hired if she is six months pregnant. Women are also supposed to breastfeed their babies and are browbeatened by medical doctors and child development experts to "give their child the best they can offer." But who pays for all those those countless hours women give to their children? Are women just supposed to take up the slack and somehow just squeeze (no pun intended!) the breastfeeding in? Ultimately, these things add up to work/training hours lost and women, in study after study, end up bearing the brunt of child rearing responsibilities. This also diverts from her career. Though a woman might work diligently and intelligently at the task of raising her children, she loses "resume building" experiences and isn't covered by a pension or even social security. In other industrialized countries, a parent's time spent child rearing is acknowledged in various, tangible ways, including monetary stipends.

If a woman decides to pursue a career and puts off childbearing, she faces decreased fertility starting at age 30 and a significant increased risk of birth defects and medical complications of pregnancy by age 35. (Multiple sources. This is one of the reasons why egg donors don't want anyone over 30.) If a woman "waits too long" and can't have biological children though she desires children, she is then left with the choice of adoption (usually difficult and expensive nowadays), parenting other pepople's children or not having kids. Men, on the other hand, always have the option of finding other partners if one partner doesn't produce a child. (Speaking from a heterosexual perspective, of course.)

Gloria Steinem proposed a national pension plan for women/mothers back in the 1970s to ensure that people who spent time in their life as caregivers to family members would not be penalized, but would be protected from total destitution in vulnernable times. As we all know, this went nowhere. In our capitalist, production-oriented society, this idea was flatly rejected by the powers-that-be.

Because our earth is crisis, I personally don't recommend that anyone have kids at this point in time. Not only is our earth reaching it's carrying capacity (based on the rate of consumption of its inhabitants), but also because it is absolutely heartbreaking to think of what kind of world our kids will inherit. I am a mother and I can tell you that, for myself, I have never known such an all-consuming and passionate love as that of parent. The inverse of this joy is an incredible heartbreak and desperation based on what appears to lie ahead for all children.

In a perfect world, women would have fairer choices and their worth would be based not on monetary value, but on their worth as member of a community. Most indigenous communities still follow this paradigm and that is one model of hope that I hold onto.



by Cholito
She-Ra, what you are calling discrimination is really just a choice a woman makes. No one is forced to have children, so the decision to raise one comes with trade offs. Obviously if you are away from work over long periods of time, others will advance around you who have contributed time to the job. Most mothers however (and many fathers) feel the benefits from raising a family outweighs their job prospects. But that is a choice, you can’t have it both ways. You cant be free to leave work and have children and also financial advance within that company, that’s just not how the world works, capitalist society or not.
by JD
If you mean the one in the red hat, that's me, and I am all woman!

I don't need anyone to fight my battles for me either, but this battle is being fought against one enemy on many fronts. I appreciate any allies that come out and represent for justice, regardless of sex or sexual orientation.
by JD
You apparently have never been to Jackson, Mississippi.

Well now. Have a look at "The Last Abortion Clinic", by PBS's Frontline, viewable online at
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/clinic/view/
by Pablo Serna
Came by your website by way of link from http://www.secondlookproject.org and read your recent post about the LifeChain. A couple of comments from a fellow human:

1. You can always tell what kind of journalism you are about to read just by reading the headlines. When I read "anti-choice" and "right wing" I know that there will be a certain amount of bias in the reporting. How unfortunate, since you guys seem to cover a lot of positive activisim in your area, kudos there, but it is the same old stuff when it comes to abortion coverage from the media.

2. Yes, I am a man and I feel strongly about abortion even though I cannot physically bear children. This no less removes my pain that I feel even now when I recall encouraging my teenage girl friend (I was 19 at the time, she was 19 as well) to seek an abortion. In my mind, I did choose and I selfishly choose myself. I can tell you now, that I planned to break it off once the abortion had been done. Things radically changed once I found out she was pregnant. My plans were all about me and I didn't want to have a baby ruin it. Sure didn't want to get married either. This as in ALL abortion decisions is an extremely difficult choice to make, but here's the kicker... it is hard for both the potential "mother" AND "father." Anyone dismissing this really has no idea.

3. Not all so-called "anti-abortion" activist are right wingers. I'm not. I don't support the war (never did), work deligently to spread the "gospel" of green building and sustainable design. I do not vote a party line (demorcrat or republican).

Anyhow, just remember that the abortion "problem" as I call it, will never go away, because we will always have selfish people like I was (and still am in some ways) that will not want children as a result of their sexual relationships. We need to look honestly at it "upstream" and "down stream" just like we do with pollution. That would be the intelligent, problem solving approach. I try to work in my area on the "upstream" side, having seen the "downstream" side of abortion first hand.

+pablo
by A woman who has had an abortion
And...just remember, there are women who aborted based on what they wanted- there isn't always a man lurking the background egging them on.Thats my sitch. i think it's critically important for men to come to terms with their fertility..they need to articulate and then practice a sexual ethic which feeds their vision of how to usher life in, or conversely, keep it at bay
The question i have is this: what will you do with your professed past selfishness, now that you know it can be used as rational to shut down a legal right many of us were not coerced into accessing? I think it's good that your'e reflecting on your past and how your decisions worked against another's...more power to you. But your situation, tho common, is by no means universal and even if it was, prohibiting abortion wouldn't answer the real problem ,which, according to you, had is one of coercion.
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