Winning back ground on abortion

A POTENT reminder of the need to safeguard the right of women to choose abortion came on January 22.

According to police, a mentally disturbed man deliberately drove his SUV into the front of a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Paul, Minn. Luckily, no one inside the clinic was hurt, and there was only minimal damage done to the facility, which reopened for business the same day. The driver was taken into custody and is likely to be charged with felony aggravated assault.

The date of the attack is no coincidence. January 22 marked the 36th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision granting women in the U.S. the right to abortion--a decision that anti-choice activists are fanatical about overturning. Many take their anti-choice activism on the road as well, picketing clinics and harassing the women who enter them, regardless of their own ignorance about the circumstances under which a woman may have become pregnant or her personal reasons for seeking an abortion.

In fact, even as the driver of the SUV was hurtling down the sidewalk toward the clinic, a group of religious anti-choice protesters were picketing nearby--"praying" for the women and "babies."

While anti-choice activists claim that such extreme actions are not indicative of their movement--indeed, that they abhor violence and only want to "protect babies"--history has shown otherwise. Particularly during the 1980s, a section of the anti-choice movement was perfectly willing to engage in violence--including arson, bombings and in several cases outright murder--in order to intimidate health care workers from performing, or women from seeking, abortions.

Some anti-choice extremists are still willing to use violence against clinics, as this latest attack in St. Paul shows. In mid-January, the Omaha abortion clinic of Dr. LeRoy Carhart caught fire and suffered damage to its basement. Carhart believes the fire was arson--since he has been a victim of extremists before. In 1991, his own home and barn were set on fire, killing horses and family pets.

In February 2008, a Eureka, Calif., Planned Parenthood was set on fire with bible verses taped to its door. And in December 2007, three clinics in the Albuquerque, N.M., area were attacked, destroying one and leaving the other two with fire damage and smashed windows. According to an article from the Palm Beach Post, in Florida alone, from 1990-2005, "anti-abortion zealots have used violence--arson, acid, pipe bombs and shootings--in 24 attacks in Florida that have killed, injured and aimed to intimidate."

"There's no shortage of tension when you work at Planned Parenthood," Tim Stanley, the senior director for government and public affairs for Planned Parenthood, told the Pioneer Press after the clinic in St. Paul was attacked.

VIOLENCE DIRECTED against abortion clinics is terrorism, plain and simple--an act designed to instill fear into both health care workers and women. Yet it's almost never called out as such. In fact, for the past eight years, the Bush administration has given its wholehearted support to those seeking to undermine a woman's right to abortion.

As one of his final acts in office, George Bush proclaimed January 18 "National Sanctity of Human Life Day," declaring that "[a]ll human life is a gift from our creator that is sacred, unique and worthy of protection. On National Sanctity of Human Life Day, our country recognizes that each person, including every person waiting to be born, has a special place and purpose in this world." (Unless, of course, you happen to be one of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians to fall victim to the U.S. "war on terror"--or, perhaps, a Palestinian child living in Gaza, killed by Israel with bombs supplied by the U.S.)

Abortion rights advocates are now looking forward to the next four years, believing that an Obama administration will safeguard abortion rights and, hopefully, get rid of some of the worst of the Bush administration's anti-choice policies.

Already there are signs of change. As one of his first acts in office. President Obama issued a statement on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade praising the decision. Roe, he said, "not only protects women's health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters."

Compare that with Bush, who routinely addressed anti-choice marches and openly pledged to institute as many anti-choice measures as possible while trying to overturn Roe.

Obama is taking steps to roll back some of the worst Bush-era policies on abortion rights. His administration has already issued an executive order reversing the "Mexico City policy," a global gag rule that prohibits federal aid from going to international family planning organizations that provide abortions or abortion counseling. And, just days in office, the Food and Drug Administration began approving clinical trials using embryonic stem cells, something the Bush administration opposed.

Obama has also openly advocated comprehensive sex education (as opposed to the current government funding of ineffective abstinence-only policies) and is likely to try to reverse or freeze so-called "midnight" provisions from Bush's Department of Health and Human Services that expand the ability of doctors and other health care professionals, including pharmacists, to legally refuse to dispense the abortion drug RU486, and emergency contraception or other forms of birth control if it violates their "conscience."

This represents a welcome change compared to the last eight years, but pro-choice activists should be on their guard against expecting too much from the Obama administration without a concerted push from below.

Obama, like most Democrats, is timid when it comes to fully proclaiming that a woman's right to choose abortion is fundamental, instead choosing to focus on making abortion safe, legal and rare (with the emphasis on "rare").

As he noted in his January 22 statement, "no matter what our views, we are united in our determination to prevent unintended pregnancies, reduce the need for abortion, and support women and families in the choices they make. To accomplish these goals, we must work to find common ground to expand access to affordable contraception, accurate health information and preventative services."

There should absolutely be more access for women and men (especially poor women and men) and teens to contraception, and more programs that provide information about pregnancy prevention. But that can be no substitute for an unapologetic move to expand abortion rights and access by moving to roll back the hundreds of federal and state restrictions that have led to a shortage of abortion providers and a lack of abortion services in nearly 90 percent of counties in the U.S.

The right-wing is gearing up for a battle to keep restrictions on abortion rights in place for the next four years. Even as Obama was reaffirming support for Roe, thousands of anti-choice activists rallied in Washington, D.C. Although somewhat smaller than anti-choice rallies in recent years, the rally participants included a number of young people--one sign of the success the right has had in winning ideological ground on the question of abortion. In addition, the Washington Post noted that at the rally were "20 members of Congress [who] individually came to the podium to cite Scripture and spiritual inspiration in their fight against more liberal laws on abortion and other bioethics issues."

In other words, the right wing, though temporarily demoralized by Obama's victory, will attempt to regroup and organize for a fight.

When it comes to protecting the right to chose abortion, our side has to be organized too--and that means taking action to confront the anti-choice bigots wherever they raise their heads and keeping the pressure on the Obama administration to deliver on its promises. Only an unapologetic defense of abortion rights will make up some of the ideological ground that we've lost in the decades since Roe first became law.
Nicole Colson, Chicago