Crowds from both sides of the abortion rights debate met and exchanged words (and an elbow or two) outside the Family Planning Clinic on N. Westmoreland in Los Angeles on Saturday. Pro-Choicers made a line around the entrance, creating what organizer, Katie, called a “safe zone” for would-be patients at the clinic.

Pro-life activists stood and sang or knelt and prayed across the sidewalk and down the street, sometimes outnumbering the Pro-Choice contingent by 2 to 1.

“The goal is to protect the clinic,” one Pro-Choice volunteer said, “we’re trying to keep it open, and the other side is trying to shut it down.” They’re trying to shut it down, she explained, by physically blocking the entrance to the building or meeting women at their cars and trying to deter them from going into the building.

The conflict comes from a new push by a group called 40 Days For Life Los Angeles (FDFL), who are a religious group that has called for a presence at family planning clinics around the country. They have been met in Los Angeles by Pro-Choice activists, and both sides of the conflict admit it hasn’t been easy. One Pro-Choice activist told me a story that although they’ve been able to help escort many young women into the clinic without much trouble, there has been at least one young woman who went away in tears after being confronted by Pro-Life protesters.

“We’re out here to pray,” FDFL organizer Jonathan Anthony said. “We’re here to pray for these people; for those people who work at abortion clinics; to pray for everybody.”

Several Pro-Choice activists claim to have witnessed the FDFL group “accosting” young women going into the clinic, but Anthony counters that the group is there to offer counseling, not hate. When asked if one of the FDFL goals was to intimidate people in order to keep them from going into the clinic, he first said “a little bit, yes.” After a moment, he revised himself: “no, I don’t want to say it that way…Everybody wants to do good. We are trying to be the light in their lives; their hope in their lives.”

He continued: “sometimes it looks like we are there to make them hurt or something, but they have to give thought to this decision.”

Things turned physical at one point during the day when both a Pro-Choice and a Pro-Life activist were talking to the same young potential patient. The Pro-Choice activist accused the Pro-Life activist of assaulting her by using his elbow to violently push her out of the way. The altercation was brought to the attention of the police on the scene, and assault charges were filed against the man.

This coming Saturday, the 40 Days For Life group will be marching from a church near MacArthur Park to the clinic at 601 N. Westmoreland to protest the clinic again. Organizers of the Pro-Choice movement are asking that people who wish to help bring signs and water, and show up as early as 8:00am to confront the march at around 10:00am. The vigil will likely last into the afternoon.

LOCATION: 601 N. Westmoreland Ave, Los Angeles, 90004
DATE: Saturday, October 10th, starting at 8:00am until end

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Those people are not pro-life they are ANTI-CHOICE! They don't women to have abortions even when the women's life is at stake. Many of them support the War in Iraq and defend the Catholic churchs and the murders it has committed in the name of " life". We should not use their language because their words are full of deceit!

They are ANTI-CHOICE and ANTI-WOMAN.

If you look at a short backgrounder I wrote, http://la.indymedia.org/news/2009/10/230792.php , you'll see that they're okay with death to some people. Some people are pro-life all the way from conception to opposing the death penalty - and I imagine some protesters were... but the leadership of the protest is strictly anti-abortion, or at least anti-publicly-funded-abortion. They might be okay with abortion if you can afford to pay for it yourself.

One of their leaders works for a right-wing research institution for intelligence and national security. That's spies, the CIA, and all that mess. That's not just death - that's like a big, secret death.

Another guy worked for oil. Another is a right-wing pundit. The rest seem to be career religious anti-abortion activists.

They were so into praying, too. They prayed more than any Muslims I've met. I think these events are their form of personal struggle to prove their devotion to god.

a reliable source has informed me that these anti-choice freak shows were organized under the auspices of the Knights of Columbus

this study indicates abortion DOES NOT cause distress

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41280864/ns/health-mental_health/

By Alicia Chang

updated 1/26/2011 5:21:58 PM ET

LOS ANGELES— Having an abortion does not
increase the risk of mental health problems,
but having a baby does, one of the largest
studies to compare the aftermath of both
decisions suggests.

The research by Danish scientists further
debunks the notion that terminating a
pregnancy can trigger mental illness and
shows postpartum depression to be much
more of a factor.

Abortion in Denmark has been legal since
1973 — the same year the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled on Roe v. Wade, which established a
right to abortion.

The Danish study included 365,550 teenagers
and women who had an abortion or first-time
delivery between 1995 and 2007. None had a
history of psychiatric problems that required
hospitalization. Through various national
registries, researchers were able to track
mental health counseling at a hospital or
outpatient facility before and after an abortion
or delivery.

During the study period, 84,620 had an
abortion while 280,930 gave birth.

Researchers compared the rate of mental
health treatment among women before and
after a first abortion. Within the first year after
an abortion, 15 per 1,000 women needed
psychiatric counseling — similar to the rate
seeking help nine months before an abortion.

Researchers say women who seek abortions
come from a demographic group more likely
to have emotional problems to begin with.
Statistics show that a large percentage struggle
economically and they have above-average
rates of unintended pregnancies.

While first-time mothers had a lower rate of
mental problems overall, the proportion of
those seeking help after giving birth was
advertisementadvertisement> Abortion doesn't trigger mental distress, says study
Postpartum depression much more of a factor, according to Danish research
dramatically higher. About 7 per 1,000 women
got mental health help within a year of giving
birth compared with 4 per 1,000 women pre-
delivery.

The most common problems among women in
both the abortion and the delivery groups
were debilitating anxiety, severe stress and
depression.

"A woman should know that her risk of having
a psychiatric episode is not increased" after an
abortion, said Trine Munk-Olsen of Aarhus
University, who led the study.

Results were published in Thursday's New
England Journal of Medicine. The study was
funded by grants from the Danish Medical
Research Council and the Susan Thompson
Buffett Foundation, which supports abortion
rights organizations and projects.

The study did not examine why a pregnancy
was terminated. Researchers also only studied
mental problems serious enough to warrant
admission to a hospital or outpatient clinic
and did not look into the role of mild
depression and other lesser symptoms.

In a previous study, published in 2006, Munk-
Olsen found new mothers faced increased
risks for a host of mental problems, not just
postpartum depression.

Changes in hormone levels, sleep deprivation
and other demands associated with having a
baby could trigger mental problems, experts
say. By contrast, women who have an abortion
don't experience similar changes.

"Anyone who's ever had a baby knows it's
stressful. That stress doesn't go away in a
week or two" after delivery, said Dr. Robert
Blum, who heads the department of
population, family and reproductive health at
the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public
Health .

The latest findings echo an extensive review by
the American Psychological Association in
2008 that found no evidence that ending an
unwanted pregnancy threatens women's
mental health.

A separate review by Blum and his colleagues
found that the most rigorous research on the
topic did not find a relationship between
abortion and long-term mental health
problems. Previous studies that suggested
advertisementadvertisement>
such a connection were often poorly designed,
had dropout rates or did not control for
factors that could affect the conclusion.

Though the latest study was done in Denmark,
Blum said it's comparable to the U.S. Access to
abortion is similar in both countries though
Denmark tends to be more conservative.

Abortion rates are lower in Denmark — about
13 abortions per 1,000 women in 2008,
compared to almost 20 per 1,000 U.S. women
that same year, according to the Guttmacher
Institute, which studies reproductive-rights
issues.

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