NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/8657

Text File | 1992-11-23 | 5.7 KB | 122 lines

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From: "RHODNEY WARD, [phone]W/336-4829H" <[e-mail]>
Subject: A Clinic Defense Nightmare in Milwaukee, <Left Turn/Solidarity>
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Dear All,

Following is an article that appeared in the Fall 1992 issue of Left Turn.
Left Turn is a publication of the Student and Youth of Solidarity, a
national grassroots organization that works for socialism from below.  Comments
and questions are welcomed at:     [e-mail]
                  or [e-mail]
If anyone would like a more detailed description of Solidarity, please
request it from me at the above email address.

Cause more trouble than you get into!
Rhodney Ward
Bloomington Solidarity
120 S. Kingston Dr., A-7
Bloomington, IN 47408
[phone]


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
<LEFT TURN, FALL 1992, p.8>

A Clinic Defense Nightmare in Milwaukee:
"Leaving it to the cops" Gives Operation Rescue a Boost

by Becky Kellum and Masha Alexander
    A coalition of anti-choice groups targeted Milwaukee,
Wisconsin this summer for a six-week offensive on clinics
that provide abortion services.  While hundreds of pro-
choice activists answered the call to defend the clinics,
they were frustrated in part by a non-confrontational
strategy put forward by the Milwaukee Clinic Protection
Coalition (MCPC).  As this report from August 8th shows, the
anti-choice coalition, which included Operation Rescue and
Missionaries for the Pre-Born, succeeded in keeping women
from Milwaukee s clinics.  MCPC s failure to keep clinics
open left pro-choice activists demoralized, while the antis
celebrated their success by extending their stay in
Milwaukee indefinitely.  Missionaries for the Pre-Born, who
criticize Operation Rescue for being too liberal for
mentioning women s bodies, have made Milwaukee their
national headquarters.
    As the sun rose over one Milwaukee clinic, Affiliated
Medical Health Services, Inc., on August 8th, several
hundred pro-choice activists, including major contingents
from Chicago and Madison, stood around drinking coffee and
eating muffins, completely unaware that thousands of anti-
choice fanatics were assembling in the parking lot of the
Wisconsin Women s Health Clinic on Brown Deer Road.  The
situation was similar at Milwaukee s four other clinics.  By
7:30 a.m., rumors were circulating among the pro-choice
forces at Affiliated Medical Services, Inc. that the Brown
Deer clinic, a clinic that MCPC had decided to "leave to
the cops," had been swamped by antis.  Reacting to these
rumors, several car loads of volunteers took off to Brown
Deer while the majority of the pro-choice forces remained at
clinics unchallenged by Operation Rescue.
    The scene at Brown Deer was, well, something completely
different.  Nearly one thousand members of O.R., Lambs of
Christ, Missionaries for the Pre-Born, and Youths for
America were entrenched at the clinic doors, had surrounded
the parking lot, and were spilling onto the lawn of the car
dealership across the street.  Any pro-choice presence was
impossible to detect.  Needless to say, the police were
doing little, if anything, to effectively protect the clinic
while the news crews were busy filming away.
    The first few pro-choice activists to arrive on the
scene were told by somewhat frazzled MCPC organizers to
blend into the crowd by removing any pro-choice insignia.
Assumedly, the strategy was to get as close as possible to
the clinic doors.  This, however, soon proved futile, since
the anti-choice forces were nearly three rows thick and
fully blocking the clinic s parking lot.  The discouraging
and confusing state of affairs was compounded by several
shouting matches among pro-choice activists, who were
frustrated by MCPC's apparent failure to anticipate an
attack on the undefended clinic.
    The vocal militancy of pro-choice activists and
reinforcements that trickled in from other area clinics did
eventually succeed in establishing a pro-choice presence.
While we remained outnumbered, the police were soon
encouraged to do their job, and began removing antis from
the lot.  In typical O.R. fashion, the antis blocked the
police buses by placing their kids in the middle of the
road, once again illustrating their commitment to children s
lives.
    Activists succeeded in getting the clinic open, but the
evening news still showed that the pro-choice forces at
Brown Deer had been significantly outnumbered.  Although
accurate, this image is especially frustrating since
hundreds of pro-choice activists were ready to defend the
clinics in Milwaukee but had not been directed to Brown Deer
since MCPC had decided to leave it to the cops.  The
background of this decision remains unclear, but the
situation once again illustrates that relying on the police
to defend women s reproductive rights, for whatever reason,
is a strategy that is bound to lead to failure.
    The reasons why we must continue to mobilize activists
and not merely rely on police are to insure that the clinics
are really kept open, to demoralize the anti-choice forces
with a consistent and militant presence, and to make sure
media-conscious politicians think twice before further
undermining abortion rights.  The August 8th experience in
Milwaukee once again shows that only an organized, militant
mass movement can hope to successfully defend and further
women s rights.