This upcoming Thursday, September 8^TH, is being promoted as National Pro-Life Chalk Day (read more on the National Prolife Chalk Day site).  If you have not yet encountered it, sidewalk chalking has become a common tactic of the Anti-choice movement.

I urge all supporters of abortion rights to take action this Thursday!  How?  Get your hands on some chalk and join me in the simple action of re-appropriating the harmful, hateful and blatantly mis-informational messages that will be appearing on the sidewalks of schools and public spaces near you.

Recently, Operation Rescue and their supporters chalked an array of typical Pro-life messages on the sidewalk in front of the clinic of abortion provider and Women’s rights advocate Dr. Leroy Carhart during the Summer of Trust events in Germantown, MD.  After first attempting to remove their messages, which is time consuming and laborious, we were able to much more effectively counter this tactic by altering the messages we found to expose the inherent lies contained within.

Here are a few examples of some of the re-appropriated messages from Germantown:

“Defend Life” became “Defend Women’s Rights”

Previously read “If it’s not a CHILD, you’re not pregnant”

You to yours

“Abortion Mends a Broken Heart”

“Pro-life is a lie, you don’t care if women die!”

At first it was difficult to decide exactly how to alter the messages left by the Anti-choicers, but as we got started exposing their lies came quickly and easily.

The re-appropriation of Pro-choice and feminist terminology, including the term “choice” itself, has become a major goal of the Anti-choice movement. Detournement of Pro-life chalk messages is a particularly effective way to combat this type of deceitful re-appropriation. Take a look at the list of example chalk messages provided by the National Pro-Life Chalk Day website (again, http://nationalprolifechalkday.com/) and consider the blatant misuse of terminology and how you would choose to re-appropriate the misinformation contained therein when you encounter messages like:

“Abortion Hurts Women”
“End Womb Lynching”
“Abortion is Racist”
“Social Justice Begins in the Womb”
“Human Rights for ALL: Born & Preborn”
“True Feminists are Pro-Life”

A couple tips:

• It takes a lot of chalk! Even those big sticks of sidewalk chalk run out very quickly, so bring plenty!
• Light colors like white, yellow and orange are much more clearly visible than darker colors.

The anti-choice groups promoting National Pro-Life Chalk Day are not currently publicizing specific locations where sidewalk chalking will be taking place on September 8th, however one of the main objectives of the sidewalk chalking tactic is to target a youth audience, so you can expect to find anti-choicers focusing on school campuses as locations. Don’t passively allow your campus to become a billboard for anti-choice rhetoric this upcoming Thursday! Social Justice begins with the people and there has never been a better time to hit the streets, chalk in hand, to proliferate the message that we will continue to defend bodily autonomy and the right to safe and legal abortion access.

In solidarity! See you in the streets!

Galleries to view:

• World Can’t Wait’s Flickr set
• Femisisters
• Alan Gross’s album
• Lew Lorton’s photos

Here are some photos taken by Meghan von Gremp:

Photo by Isis:

“It’s a lovely day here in Germantown, Maryland. I’m enjoying this beautiful weather and being with good friends….”

This is how I responded to a “reporter” who was trying to interview me and a few of my fellow feminists. Interview me only to have you spin my comments? Not likely. I was taking part in the Summer of Choice, Summer of Trust celebration in Germantown. Since Operation Rescue decided to declare “Summer of Mercy II” and target Dr. Leroy Carhart, supporters from around the country came together to thank of Dr. Carhart for his heroic stand to help women in crisis. Dr. Carhart is one of the few doctors who will perform a late-term abortion. Women who seek this procedure are usually in grave danger of dying if bringing a fetus to full term, or they have discovered that the fetus they are carrying will not be viable outside the womb. A late term abortion is less tragic than birthing a baby who will suffer and die imminently following the birth.

My friends and I flew to Maryland to help take a stand in this Celebration. Terry, Holly, and I are all members of Brevard NOW; located in a most conservative area in Florida. We had recently taken part in clinic defense at Orlando clinics when Operation Save America traveled to the area. So we were ready to continue our mission. We had been in contact over the last couple of months with members of the National Organization for Women at their national conference. There I represented the Destigmitazation of Abortion committee and presented a resolution that NOW be a big presence and support Dr. Carhart and his Summer of Trust march. It was exciting to meet different NOW chapter members from around the country.

We also were thrilled to have met Debra Sweet who is the Director of World Can’t Wait which in addition to fighting women’s rights is an anti-war organization. I had taken part in one of their marches several years ago in Washington, DC. So I was excited to have met Debra who became a fast friend. Brevard NOW brought her from New York to address our local chapter, where she inspired us all to continue the fight for women’s reproductive rights.

Another organization I’ve been lucky enough to get acquainted with is the Feminist Majority Foundation, especially Kim Gandy, former National NOW President who I spoke with a lot this past week.

This was such an action-packed few days: We gathered in front of the clinic on Wisteria Avenue. Everywhere I looked more and more people joined in. All sorts of great signs too. And so many men who were in support of women’s rights. Very exciting. We gathered around and listened to clinic workers and then Erin Matson, National NOW Action VP. She got us fired up, and the march began. The crowd was so large that I immediately lost Terry and Holly. No worries, we’d meet up later. So I walked ahead, lagged behind, and met different folks along the march. California, Wichita Kansas, Nebraska, New York, Chicago…the list goes on. Young adults, parents, older “grandparent-type” folks all proudly holding signs in support of Dr. Carhart, in memory of Dr. George Tiller, supporting the clinic, supporting abortion rights, supporting pro-faith, pro-family, pro-choice ideals. Very exciting. I was happily marching along holding my sign when I looked up and saw a group of policemen standing on a porch watching us closely with telephoto lenses and binoculars. I suddenly realized we were all sitting ducks as we marched along the main street. I hesitated for a second but got the spring back in my step when I passed a woman standing alongside the road with a sign that showed a wire coat hanger in a circle with a line through it. “Never Again” it said. Yes, I thought: Never Again! I continued with resolve.

Later that evening, we attended a performance of “Words of Choice” produced by playwright Cindy Cooper. Pro-Choice Theater? What could this possibly be, I wondered to myself as we entered the room. I didn’t get a chance to grab the Playbill, so I really had no idea what to expect. Well to my amazement, I was transfixed by the three actors who interpreted such pieces as “Letters to Justice Blackmun”, “Rev. Jimmy Fearall’s Hour of Destiny” (I continued to sing their little hymn, ‘If you want to get to Heaven you must [clap] Pay the Lord’ the rest of the weekend), and the moving “Matt’s Story” as actor Carl Jaynes told a man’s perspective as he helplessly accompanied a girlfriend as she had an abortion. Then, all of a sudden, actress Stacey Linnartz began “Siege”, and I immediately knew this was from Dr. Susan Wicklund’s book, This Common Secret, My Journey as an Abortion Doctor. I just finished reading this book, actually read it on the plane coming up to Baltimore. So fresh in my memory and so stirringly portrayed by Stacey, well, I had the shivers.

During the discussion that followed the performances, I found myself contributing the following:

“I come from the most conservative area in Florida. I am known in the community as a pro-choice person, and there are many of the “anti’s” who comment in blogs about me and some of my friends calling us “pro-aborts”. I always cringed when I read that and would counter that ‘no one wants abortion, but we need more education, access to birth control and free health care’. I always felt that was enough but after this weekend, I realize this: I AM a pro-abort!”

Well, to my amazement I impressed the entire crowd! It was more an out-loud admission to myself than anything else, but for the rest of the time I was in Germantown, people came up to me and told me how much they appreciated what I said.

So that got me to thinking, “why the Cringe factor”? Well, the answer is easy: my own abortion back in 1973. Thank goodness I lived close to New York City at the time. I knew when I got pregnant that my boyfriend of three years who I lived with would not stay with me. He insisted that I get the abortion. I struggled with this but realized I had little choice. There was no way I could afford to raise a child as a single mother. What kind of life would that be? I was grateful that I received very good counseling at the clinic, and was treated so well. Very little stigma, just my broken relationship with my boyfriend which made me so sad. But, it is the reason I came to Florida where I met my husband and eventually had a wonderful son, so incredibly dear to me. I have my wonderful friends from Brevard NOW who are the most amazing women ever. And it turns out, just about all of us have had an abortion. So why do we cringe?

The anti’s are so full of hatred and judgement. And after this weekend I refuse to let them effect me that way ever again. I have no regrets and no shame. I shall proudly continue to fight for women’s rights and a woman’s right to have a legal, safe abortion on demand. A legal medical procedure. No shouting, no threatening, no harassing. And above all, no violence to the clinic staff and the heroic doctors.

As I stood there with my signs this week, I reaffirmed the saying of Dr. Tiller, Dr. Carhart, and all abortion providers in our country: TRUST WOMEN!

• Mother Jones’ “The Abortion Wars Come to Maryland”
• RH Reality Check, Jodi Jackson’s “At Germantown Clinic Protest, Operation Resecue’s Troy Newman Calls Pregnant Woman “Bitch”"
• RH Reality Check, Brady Swenson’s “Photos from the 2011 Summer of Choice/Summer of Trust Walk”
• RH Reality Check, Sunsara Taylor’s “Talking to Abortion Rights Activists in Germantown, MD” & “Summer of Choice: Walk for Choice at  Germantown Clinic“
• Care 2 Make a Difference’s “Summer of Mercy 2.0 versus Summer Celebration of Choice“
• Germantown Patch “Germantown enters the spotlight in national abortion debate” & The Scene as Abortion Protests Wind Down in Germantown
• Washington Independent’s “Summer of Mercy 2.0 groups work to close Carhart’s Maryland clinic“
• American Independent’s “Voices and images of Summer of Mercy 2.0, Summer of Celebration of Choice” & Hardened Summer of Mercy/Summer of Choice protesters dig in outside Carhart’s Md. clinic
• Rebublic of Gilead’s blog post, “Pro-Choice and Anti-Abortion Demonstrators Converge in Germantown, MD“
• RH Reality Check, Robin Marty’s “Summer of Mercy 2.0 Launches With Ultrasound Movies“
• The Millitant  “All out to Defend Maryland Clinic!”
• RH Reality Check, Summer of Choice: A Grassroots Response to Attacks on Clinics
• “Ms. Magazine “Summer Celebration of Choice Kicks off at Carhart’s Clinic” & Dispatches from an Abortion-Rights Battleground: Germantown, Maryland
• Amplify Your Voice
• Laura Kacere: Summer of Choice: Show Your Support and Thanks to the Doctors, Clinics, and Your Right to Choose, Activists Stand Up for Abortion Rights in Germantown, & They Say No Choice, We Say Pro Choice!
• Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
• Revolution Newspaper: Defending Abortion Doctor Carhart and the Lives of Women
• RHRealityCheck: STOKING FIRE: Clinic Violence Needs to Be Controlled
• Republic of Gilead: More on the Summer of Choice in Germantown, MD 
• Jodi Jacobson: Banners, Binoculars and Rosary Beads: Anti-Choice Misogyny, Naivete and Invasiveness On Display in Germantown & Ignore That Self-Affixed Halo: Anti-Choicers Know Just What They Are Doing to Incite Violence
• You can watch videos of activists in Germantown recorded by World Can’t Wait.
• Erin Matson: A Summer of Choice: What We Learned in Germantown
• Words of Choice: Summer of Celebration: We Say, Thank You, Doctors! Includes messages of support to Dr. Carhart from attendees of the Words for Choice event like this one: Dr. Carhart: When I learned you’d opened a clinic in Germantown, I was so proud you’d chosen Montgomery County for your practice. I’m deeply grateful for the sacrifices you and your family have made to ensure women have access to later term abortions. Sincerely, A.C.
• Socialist Worker: Summer of opposing bigotry
• Washington Post: Abortion is topic of dueling protests in Md.
• Debra Sweet, Director of World Can’t Wait, and Meghan von Gremp, Summer of Trust organizer, interviewed on KPFK-LA (audio)
• World Can’t Wait: This Weekend – Trusting Women and Celebrating Choice

You can view more gratitude and respect for Dr. Carhart here in the World Can’t Wait’s Flicker album and NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland’s facebook album and the @WordsforChoice tweets on “words 4 carhart.”

Additionally, Sunsara from the Revolution NewsPaper covered the first day of the celebration of choice here.  And the Germantown Patch made this video illustrating the vast differences in prochoice and prolife groups ideological stance in Germantown.  The Washington Independent article in which Troy Newman compares abortion to eggplant flavored ice cream can be found here.  (See above, Troy, we are not speaking about any thing close to the right to choose between ice cream flavors.)

Also, if you did not see this video message from KS NOW on the importance of standing up for choice, you can watch and read the post here.  As we stand up for choice, we hope you can stand up with us in any way you can!

Yesterday was a whirlwind of a kick-off day! Clinic defense started early in the morning, with activist from all over the country (and one from France!) participated in the morning’s peaceful, prochoice presence.

The Kick-Off Walk was a great success: Over 200 walkers came, around 2000 in cash donations were made on the ground, and the activities resulted in over 12000 total for the Abortion Access Fund! We walked the 1.3 miles chanting “They say NO CHOICE; We say PROCHOICE.” Check out some pictures here. The overwhelming majority of responses to the walkers and prochoice  presence through out the day were positive: Honking, thumbs up and solidarity-fists in the air from passer and drivers by welcomed the prochoice presence.

A incredible, moving performance from Words for Choice followed the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and Feminist Majority’s inspired and informative peaceful presence training.  Thank you to all the organizations, activist and to the mass support the prochoice community is showing!

Here is some  coverage on the events, and check out the @SummerofChoice and @SummerofTrust twitter accounts for continued updates.

Kira Ann from KS NOW reports on Operation Rescue and our unwillingness to let their terrorism go unchallenged in Germantown

Washington Post Account of the Events (they’re a little off as there were over 200 people walking, but the pictures are great!)

While antis rally, and loudly voice their anti-choice opinion, we need you to be visibly supporting choice.  We are geared up, ready to go support Dr. Carhart, and illustrate our appreciation for the right to choose.  Will you join in?

We know that not everyone can make it to the streets, but we’re hoping that you can each get involved in some way. These new poll numbers are a great, but when they really mean something is when we all become visible: in the streets, in the news, legislation and blogspheres.  There are many ways to stand up for choice, here are a few you can do to support this weeks movement:

You can donate to the Summer of Choice kick-off walk, which has already raised over 7,000 to increase access to choice. Financially supporting Germantown’s abortion services is a fantastic way to tell antis that harassing providers only galvanizes the prochoice movement.

Tweet-it-up #summeroftrust #summerofchoice #carhart #DrCarhart. Facebook tag Summer of Trust and Summer of Choice. Blog with us next week: We will be live blogging with from-the-streets updates, and hosting a blog carnival on why keeping abortion as a choice in the United States is important to you.

Any way you can show America is majority prochoice, do it! We are not willing to give up choice, and know that most of you aren’t either.

Confronting the “Genocide Awareness Project” in Baltimore
By Brandy Baker

Raising FUNds and Breaking the Silence in Los Angeles
By Meghan von Gremp

Confronting the “Genocide Awareness Project” in Baltimore
By Brandy Baker

“I used to work in a hospital photographing infants and I can tell you right now, those pictures are probably fake,” a young woman told me after I handed her a flyer. The flyer was made for to publicize Summer of Trust: a nationwide mobilization of abortion rights activists who will be standing for Dr LeRoy Carhart and his committed staff against Operation Rescue’s “Summer of Mercy 2.0″ at Dr Carhart’s Germantown clinic starting July 31. “Summer of Mercy 2.0″ is the antis 20th anniversary celebration of their original “Summer of Mercy” in Witchita, Kansas.

The anti-abortion movement has become emboldened since the 2009 murder of Dr. George Tiller by one of their members. Despite denunciations of Tiller’s murderer from the antis, the movement has amped up their harassment of Dr Carhart, who was a colleague and friend of the late Dr Tiller. After Tiller’s assassination,  Carhart opened his current clinic in Germantown, putting himself in danger from the antis in order to offer much-needed late term abortion services. Only a handful of doctors across the country will provide late-term abortions. The irony is that abortion was only a small part of Dr Carhart’s practice until 1991, when antis set fire to his farm killing many of his animals; antis later took responsibility in an anonymous note comparing the killing of his animals to the killing of “unborn babies”. Instead of retreating, Dr Carhart began to exclusively perform abortions, earning the ire of Operation Rescue and like groups.

Passersby joined in, making their own signs and chanting against the antis

The photographer to whom I was speaking with had just thrown away an anti-choice card seconds after it was given to her. The anti-abortion rights group that was out in 90 degree heat on Saturday, July 16 was the Genocide Awareness Project. A group whose distorts of Bible verses written thousands of years ago; peddles junk science; and put forth gratuitous protest tactics using large, grotesque posters of aborted fetuses almost all late-term; they eerily reminded me of the Westboro Baptist Church. In the words of activists Courtney Ritter and May Silverstein:”Their graphic imagery argues that women are not simply Pat Buchanan’s ‘femiNazis’. Instead, women are Nazis. Women are racists. Women are terrorists.” (Cornell Daily Sun http://www.cornelldailysun.com/node/12706)

The event was Artscape, the largest free arts festival in the United States, which is held every July in Baltimore, Maryland. I have to admit: setting up this display at Artscape took a lot of chutzpah on the part of GAP as the crowd of 350,000+ attendees this past weekend are pretty forward-thinking on many political issues and do not wish to return to 1692-Salem, Massachusetts. Also, GAP were savvy enough not to bring their posters which have side by side comparisons of fetuses with either lynched African Americans or Jews during the Holocaust to a group who most likely would not accept such cheap manipulation of past atrocities.

We got the word that GAP was coming to Artscape only a couple of days before they arrived. Our original, quickly drawn up plan was to stand several feet in front of them and pass out Summer of Trust flyers as we knew that there would be many who would be angered that these red and black mini-billboards were forced upon as they turned the corner. Five of us gathered together across the street from where they were assembling. The police initially held GAP up from setting up their displays at the very busy corner as the public property was, for the weekend, Artscape’s property by permit, and technically, one end of the festival. One of the cops were phoning in to their legal department to see what specifically the rules were for setting up at property that was given to Artscape for the weekend. GAP released an article about their Artscape picket a few days later and were misleading by their omissions of the above dynamics with the police only telling their readers that the police threatened “to have [GAP] arrested” and they continued to whine, as they did at the festival, that the police attempted to violate their First Amendment rights. Though I am not exactly known for being a staunch defender of the police, this reality needs to be pointed out as the antis, as part of their PR strategy, love to paint themselves as the persecuted ones, though their movement has a long history of violence, including murder, assault, stalkings, harassment, and physical violence. Living daily with the possibilities of being the next victims of anti-abortion violence as Operation Rescue has leased space close to clinic, Dr Carhart and his staff show commitment and bravery every day by do their jobs to provide needed services for women .

Half of roughly the fourteen GAP antis went a block up to less busy, but still crowded corner to set up shop. A couple of us followed them, went up to their display, stood on the other side of the walkway,  and started passing out lit to people walking by. Initially, we were rebuffed as some people thought we were with the antis. One of our activists chased after a woman for almost a block because he did not want to be associated with the antis in the minds of anyone at Artscape; the woman was quite friendly to him and eager to hear more about Summer of Trust when she realized that this activist supported choice. Realizing that we were being associated with the antis, we held our flyers in front of us for all to see  and we would reiterate slogans such as, “Let women make their own decisions about their bodies,” and “we are pro-choice”. The crowd became a bit friendlier to us.

We had coverage on both sides of the streets and also coverage for the slow-moving cars that crawled along as they were forced to turn left as the street was blocked off on that corner. We were much more proactive than the antis who sheepishly passed out a few cards to people walking by. On our watch, every single person who came by the intersection on foot or by car were offered one of out SOT flyers. We found out from two of the many pro-choice Artscape attendees who were walking across the street from the GAP display that the antis had set up back at the first, more active location.  I immediately ran up to the corner and stood in the street. In the thick crowd, as I passed out flyers chanting “support abortion rights”, a man in glasses, came out onto the street and clearly wanted me to know that he was photographing me. I proceeded to blow kisses  and do a hand-on-hip, butt-jutting-out walkway pose for this man so he could get some good shots which unfortunately did not make the cut for their site as I discovered a few daqys later when I read their account of this protest. A short female GAP member who seemed fearful the whole time she was there would lower her hand that held the video cam every time I turned around to see her. I blew her kisses as well. My photo session continued long after I stopped posing and paying attention to them.

GAP’s was scheduled to hold their signs from 4 to 8. At 6, two of our folks a block up had to leave, so all three of us, for the next two hours, were stationed in front of the master display back where we began. As we were passing out flyers, many came up to thank us for being there. In a delightfully serendipitous moment, as I ran out of flyers, two social workers, one male, one female, came up to us, immediately expressed their solidarity, and asked up for paper and pens. They proceeded to make pro-choice signs out of pages of notebook paper. They immediately stood in front of the antis and their freak show and shouted repeatedly, “prochoice” to the crowd. Many thumbed up and cheered.

“I’m gay, so they’ll condemn me to hell anyway,” said the guy.

“If heaven is the place where people like Pat Robertson; Jerry Falwell; Billy Graham; and that promoter of child abuse, James Dobson go to when they die, then why the fuck would I want to go there?” I responded. We then made promises to one another that after we were sent to hell, we would look one another up.

Almost immediately, others from the crowds came up and made their their own signs as well. We followed the lead of these wonderful souls and we also stood in front of the antis and their signs. I briefly left our newly-formed and enthusiastic group to get something to drink.  I brought back a large can of spiked iced tea that we passed around amongst ourselves. The antis had a few supporters who verbally trashed us and by doing so, inadvertently put on an a few short comedy acts for us which we greatly enjoyed. For free. However, no one joined the antis in their protest.

Another young woman came up and expressed her support and went on to challenge the antis: “I am a nursing student, and I know all stages of fetal development, and fetuses do not have skin.” Many a middle finger were waged at the antis, and there were numerous complaints from parents with small children about the gratuitous photos. Our side received many high-fives, expressions of support, people thanking us for countering the antis, as well as hugs and much appreciated, albeit overpriced, bottles of water. Soon after that, people brought us very large and long pieces of paper to make signs as well as chalk and markers. We now had a couple of signs that were comparable in size to the antis and we were able to dominate part of the corner, much to the amusement and satisfaction of some in the crowd. We received more hugs and thank you. I wrote abortion rights messages with the donated chalk on the pavement in front of us; nice to be able to make art at Artscape.

All organizers bring gifts to the movement, many of those gifts were shown by these wonderful people protesting, both by the activists who came to flyer promoting Summer of Trust as well as our new friends, the activists who led us to stand in front of the antis. The gifts of each activist combined in an action or planning session are, for the last of a better cliche, where the rubber hits the road, an ideal place to be in grassroots work. Where the organic success of a plan or action thanks to the input of all is not only personally rewarding and fun to carry out, but where it is also effective and can be downright powerful. I am fortunate enough to have the ability to project my voice loudly. As a result, I easily smoked out the antis as they tried to compete with me in chants; when we would tell people to got to summeroftrust.com, one of them tried to correct me saying, “Summer of Mercy”; no one heard him or any of their “abortion is murder” chants thanks to my big mouth; in fact, they were so drowned out that even my fellow activists later told me that they did not hear them. We were shouting out, “summerotrust.com” and writing it on slips of paper for people who came up to us. Thanks to the crowd, we had plenty of paper, even though we ran out of flyers much earlier.

Before both sides concluded, I could not help but to notice a very stark difference between our two groups. Abortion is so very important to women, but you would not know it by looking at GAP’s Artscape demo: the group was majority men and most of the women were passive, silent, and sullen, It was also clear that theirs was a patriarchal set-up as the male majority called all of the shots in their group. There was one woman who was loud (that I had drowned out) and even though what she was saying was nutty, I had a grudging respect for her or daring to have a voice at all. As someone who was raised in the evangelical Christian tradition, I see that nothing has really changed. This observation on my part reflects the anti-choice movement nationally. With the exception of a few rich and well-connected Queen Bees and “Mama-Grizzlys”, the anti-abortion rights movement is a man’s domain. Two halves of a very large elephant that crowd the anti-choice movement’s space are:

1.) The patriarchal set-up of their movement both nationally and on the front lines of fighting against a women’s right to choose

2.) Young, white evangelical women are the second largest group in the United States seeking abortion services, according to an NIH study (http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/sept97/chd-09.htm).

In contrast, our group had leadership (me) to a point, but our side naturally flowered as both men and women, seasoned activists and newcomers, came up with ideas and took leadership roles, whether it be signs, chants, where we should stand, etc. I chuckle when I went to to GAP blog with their story on this event; they took great pains to highlight a young woman holding a sign reading, “I like sex, not babies.” Yes, the ultimate sin: females who want to fuck and are proud of it, but do not wish to be mothers. My saucy poses may not have made the cut, but they picked a great one from our side to post. I did not even see that sign until, thankfully, GAP posted it.

Our friends stayed with us for a while, and slowly left, giving us more hugs and we exchanged contact info.  The antis clearly had enough of us, and folded up at 8 sharp, their scheduled time; three of us were left, we packed it in as well. We owe GAP a debt of thanks as we would not have been able to reach nearly as many people as we did and promote Summer of Trust without their intrusive presence. We greatly benefitted by GAP’s repulsive display.

As we were folding up, a young woman came up to us and informed us that we should not judge women because we do not know their situations. We made it clear that we were pro-abortion rights, and she talked to us for quite a while. Her friend became pregnant at 14 and her mother forced her to carry to term. This led us to discuss the need for full eradication of parental consent laws so a minor could control her own body. I mentioned Becky Bell, a 17 year old girl who died from a back alley abortion because she did not want to tell her parents that she was pregnant. Her mother became a pro-choice activist after she died. Soon after joining the pro-choice movement, the antis stalked Becky’s parents, loosened the lug nuts on their automobile,  and maligned Becky posthumously by claiming that her cause of death was fabricated. The antis also shot at a building that the Bells were in as they were addressing a crowd at a pro-choice forum.

In response to all of this, Mrs Bell stated, “They cared more about a fetus than my daughter.”

********

As silly as these people may be, the antis play dangerous and dirty both at the clinics and in our legislatures, both state and federal levels. They, thanks to the indifference and sometimes complicity of the Democrats, have been able to slowly chip away at Roe V. Wade. These actions have disproportionately affected poor women and women of color. The antis have a great scheme going that would make one of their billionaire funders, Amway’s Dick Devos envious: intimidate legitimate abortion providers, cut abortion funding for poor women, and pass other statewide laws such as parental consent, waiting periods, and attempting to pass laws charge women who miscarry that create the climate for back alley abortions. Then, call Planned Parenthood “racist” for providing services in poor areas where there are virtually none as over 85% of counties have no abortion provider. Also, blame the pro-choice movement when back alley doctors like the criminal Dr. Kermit Gosnell from Pennsylvania harm and even kill women. The businesses of back alley butchers like Dr. Gosnell have flourished thanks to the work of the antis.

Not only do we need need to stand with the heroic Dr Carhart against these domestic terrorists fighting for quick path to a theocratic government and seek to get there by gutting abortion along the way, we need to get out and fight for what little we have and expand on our rights. Do we want to live in a world where 14 year olds are forced to carry fetuses to term, a forced choice that will forever affect their lives? I damned sure don’t, but this is where we are headed as sadly, the Right is getting some success thanks to their attacks on late-term abortions and with their “pro-choice equals eugenics” propaganda campaign.

And do we really want to cede ground the antis by not coming out to counter “Summer of Mercy 2.0?”? While we cannot guarantee what will, or will not occur, we need to look at what did happen 20 years ago at the original “Summer of Mercy” in Witchita. As journalist Mary Maples reported:

“They were hounded and harassed, shoved and shouted at on the most heart-breaking day of their lives. In order for patients to make it to their appointments, clinic supporters had to coordinate each woman’s arrival with walkie-talkies….I watched one woman sobbing as she and her husband were helped into the clinic. Her tears went unnoticed by the hundreds of protestors surrounding her who shrieked and wailed and tried to trip the people escorting her to the door” (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-mapes/no-mercy_b_209529.html)

Please join us both Summer of Trust (www.summeroftrust.com) and Summer of Choice (www.summerof choice.com) on July 31- August 7 in Germantown as we work peacefully work together to advocate not only for the heroic Dr Carhart and his dedicated staff, but fight for the right of women to make their own reproductive decisions. For those who have safety concerns as far as the anti-abortion rights activists, please know that the two groups will be far apart. And if you can, please sign up for shifts outside of the clinic: http://www.summerofchoice.com/summer-celebration-of-choice/presence-signup.cfm

Edit: Check out this Fox News coverage clip from Artscape

Brandy Baker is a Maryland-based artist, writer, and one of many volunteer organizers for Summer of Trust. However, her views in this article are solely her own and may not necessarily express the views those affiliated with Summer of Trust, Summer of Choice, or others in the pro-choice movement.
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Raising FUNds and Breaking the Silence in Los Angeles
By Meghan von Gremp

Performers celebrating choice at Revolution Books LA

A woman’s right to choose is currently under attack from every side – even at our own events. On July 17th, a group of stalwart pro-choicers braved Los Angeles’ “Carmageddon” to attend a pro-choice fundraiser at Revolution Books/Libros Revolucion in Hollywood. The event was part gallery, part informational session about current pro-choice issues in the media — specifically, the upcoming Summer of Trust. The money donated by attendees is going to help send our activists to Maryland to support Dr. Carhart and his clinic. Artists, musicians and speakers provided the entertainment, and many people brought vegan brownies and other goodies for a bake sale.

The program included live music by young female artists, empowering poems, and dramatic readings from Susan Wickland’s This Common Secret, The Vagina Monologues, and IAmDrTiller.com; we wanted this to be a day to defend, support, and celebrate choice, and it was.

In the middle of the event, a group of around 10 teenagers representing anti-choice group “Survivors LA” showed up. They pointed their five-foot-tall, falsified, pre-produced death imagery into our windows. Some of our volunteers took pro-choice signs and stood behind them, facing the street so the cars driving by could see our message over theirs.

A speaker was just starting on a selection from The Vagina Monologues when the anti-choice ringleader got on her bullhorn and literally tried to drown out our voices with prayers and false information about Dr. Carhart’s clinic. At this point, they were distracting us from our program in their attempts to silence us.

We were a much larger crowd. We marched out to the sidewalk, voices strong, chanting “Our bodies, Our lives, Our right to decide!” Their leader kept trying to yell over us with her megaphone, but our voices were so much louder and our message so much stronger that we completely overpowered her. Eventually, we decided to go back inside and finish our program, and not give them the benefit of ruining our private event. That’s when they vandalized the sidewalk in front of the store by writing “Choose Life” in water resistant sidewalk chalk. We took a scrubber brush and altered their message to one more suitable: “Choose.” The police showed up and saw the vandalism; no citations were issued.

Their hateful posters included racist information, junk science, and obviously doctored images, and worse was the ignorance leading the people holding up the posters. One protester was asked about the usage of the word “negro” on the poster, to which he replied, “I haven’t actually read the signs…”

Speaking out after anti-abortion protesters showed up

They also claimed that all of the “facts” on their posters were from the Planned Parenthood website. When handed an iPhone and asked to produce exactly where on the PP website these “facts” were located (such as the statistic that women who have abortions are 144% more likely to physically abuse their children), they amended their statement and said “only some” were from Planned Parenthood. It bears noting that the Survivors LA website’s “Sources” page has a disclaimer stating that the informational websites they offer for redistribution are not meant to be entirely factual. When asked if we could contact them to provide them with actual science and facts that don’t require a legal disclaimer, they declined.

Having anti-choice opposition at the Summer of Trust fundraiser reiterated the hostility of the climate surrounding reproductive rights and illustrated exactly why we are raising money, raising our voices, and raising awareness for this cause. It solidified a sentiment that passed the lips of several attendees that day: if we don’t stand up for our rights, there will always be someone who will come to take them away.

Support the right to choose - Keep abortion legal

**It is important to share that we also watched a segment of “If These Walls Could Talk”  with Demi Moore–a story taking place when abortion was illegal–which prompted a powerful sharing session. The intense discussion the film segment generated showed how empowered people feel when the subject of abortion is brought into the light–without shame or guilt, but with a sense that it is a woman’s right and a human right, and there is nothing to feel guilty or shameful about.

Kari Ann Rinker writes in The Summer of Mercy, Shaping One Feminist at a Time that the original Summer of Mercy in Wichita, 1991 played a key role in her emerging feminism:

My small town upbringing had not given me cause to ever really think about abortion. I dare say that I hadn’t even really formulated a view one-way or the other on the issue. Seeing those shouting people, what struck me most was the mob scene that they created. I knew I didn’t like bullies and these people were most certainly bullying the women that entered that clinic.

and on RHRealityCheck.org, in From Wichita to Germantown: Standing with Dr. Carhart:

This Wichitan will be travelling to Germantown to stand with Dr. Carhart.  I will stand in memory of our fallen Doctor Tiller and for those doctors brave enough to continue providing this essential health care in spite of unspeakable threats and legal actions.  I will stand for Dr. Mila Means, who continues to face down the bullies in Wichita in spite of danger and harassment.  These thugs cannot be ignored.  They will not be denied.  They can only be met head on with all of the pro-choice might that we can muster.

Sunsara Taylor writes in Abortion doctor Leroy Carhart is a hero – Operation Rescue wants him dead:

The future of abortion rights, the lives of women and of the safety of heroes like Dr. LeRoy Carhart cannot be left to politicians or law enforcement or “someone out there who isn’t me.”  It is time – long past time – for all those to care about women to confront the fact that the future will hinge on what each of us will do.

And listen to her talk about the Summer of Trust on The Michael Slate Show, KPFK-LA July 22, 2011.