BY ELEANOR BROWN
BUFFALO, New York - Under the banner of "Operation Save
America," right-wing demonstrators carried out a weeklong
series of protests in Buffalo, Amherst, and Rochester, New
York, April 18-25, targeting area abortion clinics, high
schools, and bookstores. The protests were sponsored by
Operation Rescue, a group that led attacks on a woman's right
to choose during the early 1990s, including in Buffalo in
1992.
"Operation Save America" targeted not only women's right to choose abortion, but homosexuality, "godlessness in public schools," teenage sex, and what the organizers consider child pornography.
The anti-choice events were met everywhere by squadrons of pro-choice activists organized by Buffalo United for Choice '99, a broad coalition of groups and individuals in the western New York area.
The weeklong actions against the right to choose follow the October assassination of Dr. Barnett Slepian, who provided abortions in this area. Slepian was shot by a sniper while in the kitchen of his home in Amherst. The sign on the front door of the GYN Womenservices clinic in Buffalo, the last remaining abortion clinic in Buffalo and where the slain doctor maintained an office, bears a sign reading, "Our Clinic Remains Open in Honor of Doctor Slepian." The clinic has yet to find a replacement and is now served by visiting doctors rotating in from out of town.
No one has been arrested in the killing of Slepian, although the FBI investigation targeted and harassed two supporters of abortion rights in Cleveland, Robert Stauber and Michael Gingerich.
In anticipation of "Operation Save America," U.S. District Court Judge Richard Arcara ruled that all protesters - for and against the right to choose - must stay at least 50 feet from the clinics. Many abortion rights activists and New York State attorney general Eliot Spitzer described this as a victory. The cities of Buffalo and Amherst were inundated with hundreds local and state police, uniformed and plain- clothed, who cordoned off abortion opponents and clinic defenders, often forcing them to stand together in small pens, away from clinic entrances.
The week of activities to defend women's rights began with a rally April 17. About 200 people marched in the rain, including participants from Toronto, Cleveland, New York City, and Boston. Many activists stayed on or returned to Buffalo during the week to join in clinic defense. Local residents referred proudly to the events in Buffalo in 1992, where Operation Rescue was prevented from shutting down the clinics by pro-choice forces, despite the slugishness of police in making arrests to uphold the law.
Though Operation Rescue projected the action as a national mobilization, there were never enough anti-choice forces to attempt to blockade the clinics. About 160 anti-choice pickets and 50 pro-choice counter-demonstrators stood in front of Genesee Hospital in the nearby city of Rochester. An equal number of demonstrators from both sides, about 50, stood beyond the police barricades at the Buffalo clinic April 24.
"Operation Save America" began the week by distributing leaflets, including what they claim are photographs of aborted fetuses at four Buffalo high schools. Rachel, a 16- year-old from Kenmore West High School, described how after their school was leafleted April 20 many students made their own pro-choice signs during the school day and held a rally after school in response.
A few days later she was attending her first pro-choice rally in front of a clinic. "I think these people should get out of Buffalo," she said.
The rightists held a "youth rally against abortion and immorality" at the Rochester Urban Center. Significant numbers of teenagers participated in their vigils.
Jessica Nathanson, 30, a graduate student at the University of Buffalo, said she came to the April 24 clinic defense because "Abortion rights are being eroded and it is important to publicly show that we're the majority. It's also good for our morale."
Terry Shaw, a 24-year-old member of the Teamsters who works in a food processing plant in Avon, New York, took several days off work to attend clinic defense activities. Shaw said she thought "the unions should take a stand on this issue because most union workers are pro-choice."
Kevin Dwire contributed to this article.