One such period unfolded in the early 1990s. Emboldened by years of bipartisan efforts by capitalist politicians to restrict women’s access to abortion, Operation Rescue launched a nationwide campaign to physically shut down abortion clinics in several cities across the country. They blockaded clinic doors, violently harassed patients, and assaulted clinic workers, defenders, and doctors.

Because of the broad popular support for a woman’s right to choose, thousands of people, especially young women and men, responded to these attacks and mobilized to defend abortion clinics.

Operation Rescue is a rightist cadre organization. It not only attacks a woman’s right to abortion but promotes a broader anti-working-class agenda, from opposing “illegal immigration” to supporting “property rights.” In carrying out its assaults on abortion clinics, the group often acted with help or complicity from the police and capitalist politicians.

On July 15, 1991, Operation Rescue launched its “Summer of Mercy,” targeting three abortion clinics in Wichita, Kansas. They brought in thousands of ultraright cadres and supporters from around the country and began to blockade the clinics to terrorize women using the facilities and to shut them down.

During the six-week-long siege, however, the main women’s rights organizations, including the National Organization for Women and NARAL, resisted calls for mobilizing large numbers of people to defend the clinics. Instead, they argued for relying on the courts and police to “do their job.”

As a result, Operation Rescue conducted assaults on the clinics for weeks and closed them for a time. Some 2,650 rightists got arrested. The cops would sometimes take 24 hours to clear the entrance before allowing clinic workers to enter.

Federal judge Patrick Kelly issued an order to keep the clinics open and ordered U.S. marshals to clear the rightist goons. Two days later, however, after assurances by Operation Rescue, the judge and city officials pulled the cops and marshals off the clinic entrances. Kansas governor Joan Finney addressed an August 3 rally of rightists, commending their efforts.

On August 20, some 200 rightists stormed the Women’s Health Care Services clinic, which was supposedly guarded by cops and U.S. marshals.

Some 5,000 pro-choice supporters rallied August 24. The following day, Operation Rescue held a rally of 25,000 featuring right-wing figures such as Pat Robertson and Joseph Scheidler, as well as a Black pastor. The next day they organized a “pro-life” farmers’ tractorcade.

Wichita was a serious setback for supporters of women’s rights. It emboldened Operation Rescue to launch attacks on abortion clinics in other cities.

Many defenders of the right to choose drew lessons from this defeat. They mobilized when Operation Rescue launched its “Spring of Life” drive in April 1992 against four abortion clinics in Buffalo, New York. Pro-choice forces from around the country converged on Buffalo, mobilizing large numbers to meet the rightists. Mass pro-choice rallies were held to win public support.

Every morning at 5:00 a.m., hundreds of volunteers, overwhelmingly young women and men, reported for clinic defense. Teams were dispatched to different clinics across Buffalo. They were trained in methods to withstand charges by the rightists and exercise discipline to avoid unnecessary confrontations with Operation Rescue or the police.

Some 1,500 joined the pro-choice lines, outnumbering the 500 Operation Rescue forces, which failed to break through the defense guards. This time the clinics stayed open. It was a resounding victory and a blow to the rightists.

Then, in August of that year, Operation Rescue organized a two-week-long attempt to shut down the 14 abortion clinics in Houston, coinciding with the 1992 Republican National Convention.

Again the rightists were met with a disciplined operation by defenders of a woman’s right to choose. Despite vicious attacks by the antiabortion forces, clinic defenders held their lines. They met early each morning to be dispatched around the city. One of the guidelines they enforced to avoid victimization by the cops was to bar drugs and alcohol on the line.

These mass mobilizations in the streets, with careful training and disciplined organization, are important examples of how it was possible to successfully defend a woman’s right to choose from rightist thugs and their backers in the government, police, and capitalist parties.  
 
 
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