URGENT ALERT! Defend Women, Defend Choice! Rightwingers Assault Both in Berkeley!

Seemingly out of nowhere, a horribly ugly assault on women and reproductive rights is happening right now at UC Berkeley. A Christian fundamentalist and Christian fascist road show calling itself the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform CBRMidwest [at] cbrinfo.org arrived at Sproul Plaza early this morning (Monday) to stage what it calls its “Genocide Awareness Project (GAP).” They state their mission is to “create debate” and “our main purpose is to disciple others to save lives.” They appear from their websites to be a well-funded national campaign that is going to be travelling to campuses across the country; they see historically progressive (and pro-choice) UC Berkeley as especially crucial ground to take.

All day Monday this anti-abortion/anti-women group covered Sproul Plaza with (according to one outraged eyewitness) “…an elaborate huge huge display of bloody fetus pictures, targeting Obama, comparing abortion to Nazi genocide and lynching in the old south, and sporting a picture of Mario Savio as its "free speech" centerpiece.” This horrendous display looks like it cost huge bucks, and they had a crew of dozens of anti-abortion “disciples” including their own "documentary" film crew and both speaker types but also plenty of them walking through the crowd dressed in pink or purple, mostly older but some younger, trying to engage students in conversations about the “horrors” of abortion.

As of mid-afternoon, students from the Gender Studies Department and the local NOW chapter were texting everyone they know to get down to the campus, where they formed a line & locked arms in front of these creeps, chanting "Our bodies, Our choice" for hours. People hurried to bring signs they had at hand – “Abortion Doctors Are Heroes” – enlargements of a Revolution newspaper centerfold, “A Fetus Is Not A Baby” – and joined in. The situation was very tense.

The GAP and the Pro-Life Institute are part of the same movement that has been terrorizing clinics and murdering abortion providers, most recently shooting down Dr. George Tiller in his own church on a Sunday morning. There can be no common ground with religious fanatics and Christian fascists, given their goals of ending women’s rights to abortion and contraception. How could anyone who respects the dignity and humanity of women find common ground with people who murder and bomb to take those things away?

The World Can’t Wait movement is sounding the alarm: tell everyone you know: women and men, students and older people too -- get down to Sproul Plaza and make your presence count. This “GAP” assault is something about to hit other campuses and there has to be a resounding resistance seen, heard and felt in response. Come early (or any time) Tuesday – be with the students -- and take a stand.