Vol. 73/No. 35      September 14, 2009

Over two days some 150 people came to defend Dr. LeRoy Carhart’s Abortion and Contraception Clinic of Nebraska. Most came from Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska, and from neighboring Midwest states.

A group of 60 opponents of legal abortion, led by the rightist outfit Operation Rescue, gathered outside the clinic trying to intimidate women entering for appointments. They shouted, “Don’t kill your baby!” and “Mommy!” A line of women’s rights supporters countered them chanting, “Welcome, welcome, this clinic stays open!”

Operation Rescue had called the harassment rally as an opening shot in its “Keep It Closed!” campaign aimed at preventing Carhart from opening another clinic to provide abortion services in the Wichita, Kansas, area. They did not mobilize their supporters to come to Bellevue, however.

Dr. George Tiller, who had operated an abortion clinic in Wichita, was gunned down three months ago by an antiabortion rightist. Tiller’s clinic has been closed and Carhart says he will open a new one.  
 
‘Every woman’s right’
Terry O’Neill, president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), spoke at a press conference August 28 at Carhart’s clinic here in Bellevue.

That same day the Omaha World Herald published an article titled, “Ex-employees aid abortion foes.”

The article reports on Operation Rescue’s claim that four former employees of Carhart’s clinic said they had carried out medical procedures without proper licensing. The paper said Operation Rescue is demanding that the Nebraska attorney general’s office investigate the claims.

Asked about the assertions, Carhart noted that antiabortion groups had made similar groundless claims about Tiller for 30 years.

Troy Newman, Operation Rescue director, led the rightist’s action here. He and others from his group continually tried to provoke clinic defenders. At different times Newman and Cheryl Sullenger, the outfit’s senior policy advisor, drove past the clinic defenders, taking their photos in an intimidation tactic.  
 
Rightist attacks in other cities
Polarization around the abortion issue, part of the deepening capitalist economic crisis, was evident in other cities as well while the actions were taking place near Omaha. The Associated Press reported that on August 27 a makeshift explosive was thrown at a Planned Parenthood clinic in nearby Lincoln. The Molotov cocktail fell short of its mark and caused no damage.

The New York Times reported August 28 that Donald Hertz was arrested for threatening to have the director of the Boulder Abortion Clinic in Colorado and his entire family killed. Hertz is described by his attorney as “very pro-life.”  
 
Need for solidarity
Beth Dagle, 27, a software developer, was among the many women and men from Omaha and the nearby region who turned out for defense of the clinic here. Dagle said she came because “I support women’s rights, especially to abortion, to the core. It’s so important!”

Patrice Fisher, 51, a laid-off worker, said, “I heard about this on local TV news and MSNBC. I said to myself, ‘I really should show my solidarity.’”

For Kat Simmons, 24, it was her first time on clinic defense. Simmons said, “I read about Operation Rescue coming to town, and I contacted Erin Sullivan, president of Nebraska NOW, and joined NOW.”

Part of the defense was a honk-and-wave line on a busy street bordering the clinic. Many drivers passing by honked or gave a thumbs-up to the clinic defenders.

Three veteran clinic escorts from Louisville, Kentucky, were part of the defense. Drew Patterson, a retired salesman who has been an escort every Saturday for 10 years, told the Militant, “I am here today because this is the front line in the fight for reproductive justice.”

Patterson said he had just learned that some 200 antiabortion protesters had shown up at the Louisville clinic that morning. Patterson said he was encouraged by the fact that after Tiller’s death more young people are getting involved. “We have recruited 20 more escorts in Louisville,” he said.

Among the clinic defenders were were members of NOW; NARAL, an abortion rights lobby group; Feminist Majority; Young Socialists; Socialist Workers Party; and The World Can’t Wait.

Michelle Fadeley, president of DuPage NOW, told CNN that she drove from the Chicago area to support Carhart. Fadeley has helped organize countermobilizations against rightist harassment at an abortion clinic in Aurora, Illinois.

Several members of Medical Students for Choice came from South Dakota.

Nicole Goss, 23, came in a van with 10 others, most of them African American, organized by the Chicago Abortion Fund. “This is very important,” Goss said. “Anti-choice is using scare tactics. It’s important that the clinic stay open.”
 
 
Related articles:
Abortion prosecution protested in Australia  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home