BY JENNIFER BANATHY
BOSTON - Activists for women's rights have called a march and rally to defend abortion rights on Saturday, December 30. This will mark the one-year anniversary of the violent attack on two women's health clinics in Brookline, Massachusetts. Clinic workers Shannon Lowney and Leann Nichols were murdered and five others wounded in those attacks. John Salvi, the man charged with the killings, is a right-wing opponent of abortion rights. His trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 5, 1996.
The National Organization for Women (NOW) in Massachusetts is sponsoring the event. The flyer for the action states that protesters will demand "an end to attacks and harassment that occur daily to women who exercise their right to abortion and to those providing health-care services. We demand full prosecution of those responsible for these crimes and justice for all those who are on the front line defending a woman's right to choose."
Speakers at the rally will include David Gunn, Jr., son of Dr. David Gunn, an abortion provider murdered in Pensacola, Florida, in 1993; author and poet Marge Piercy; Kate DeSmet, a striking member of the Detroit Newspaper Guild; abortion rights leader Ellen Convisser; Domenic Bozzotto, president of Hotel Workers Union Local 26; and poet Rosario Morales.
Within hours of the shootings on Dec. 30, 1994, hundreds of abortion rights supporters gathered outside the clinics to protest. The following day, 2,000 demonstrated at the state capitol and a memorial service for Lowney and Nichols was attended by more than 1,000 people. On January 22, the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, 2,500 turned out for a march and rally in defense of abortion rights. Thousands more joined protest actions in Pensacola, New York, Miami, Norfolk, San Francisco, and many other cities.
The Brookline clinics have continued to be targeted by antiabortion rightists with visible monthly pickets. Nearly 100 abortion rights supporters turned out in front of the clinics in November, outnumbering the rightists for the first time in months.
Building for the upcoming action is going well. Supporters of a woman's right to control her body have already distributed thousands of leaflets in shopping areas, on campuses, and at social and political events. A 12,000- piece mailing went out along with a letter seeking endorsements. Volunteers are doing phone banking three nights per week from the NOW office. Leafleting teams are meeting on Saturday and Sunday mornings to hit major shopping areas around Boston.
Solidarity actions on December 30 are being planned in Pensacola, Washington, New York, and San Francisco.
After the Boston demonstration, the Planned Parenthood and Pre-Term clinics, the Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, and the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights are holding a memorial service at Temple Ohabei Shalom, 1187 Beacon Street, in Brookline with a candlelight walk to the clinics to follow. March organizers are urging participants to attend the service.
For more information on the action or to volunteer to help build it call the Massachusetts NOW office at (617) 782- 4059.