About 100 pro-Feminists of all genders and various progressive political persuasions successfully prevented forced pregnancy [so-called "pro-lifers"] protesters from disrupting a women's health clinic at 6th & Westmoreland near downtown Los Angeles on October 17, for the fourth straight Saturday.
Holding placards with slogans such as "Pro-lifers Lie, They Endanger Women's Lives", "This Clinic Stays Open" and "Keep Your Rosaries Off My Ovaries", the pro-Choicers held off the religious based “Operation Save America”'s "40 Days for Life" campaign organized by "Operation Rescue", a thinly-veiled Christo-fascist organization lead by the notorious Randall Terry.
Operation Rescue disciples have been linked to bombings of clinics that offer women abortions, as well as other services like birth control and pap smears, and even murders of abortion providers, such as Dr. Tiller this summer in the midwest.
Early in the morning, when the rightists clashed with the clinic's defenders and attempted to force patients trying to enter the clinic to take their pamphlets, which attack not only abortion, but also birth control counseling, uniformed Los Angeles Police officers in two squad cars intervened and ordered the two opposing groups to remain on opposite sides of the sidewalk. The police initially tried to force all demonstrators to move across the street, but the clinic staff and patient escorts dissuaded them.
Radical Women leader Yuisa Yimenez, one of the reproductive rights defenders of the Family Planning Associates Clinic, who has been at the barricades the last three Saturdays said, "This anti-abortion group is continuing their vile "40 Days for Life" campaign across the U.S. – including Los Angeles. The past three weekends, they have attempted a mass siege and protest in front of this clinic which provides essential services that save women's lives. These ultra-right misogynists have tried to blockade the clinic and have harassed women seeking reproductive services. Fortunately, defenders of women’s rights have been able to stave off their efforts, and we will be here as often as these bigots attempt to close it."
Joining the pro-choice clinic defenders recently were two Transgender activists, Riku Matsuda, female-to-male host of an early morning radio talk show on KPFK, 90.7 FM, and Carolina, a male-to-female member of the City of West Hollywood Transgender Task Force.
"As Trans feminists, we are here to show solidarity with all sisters and brothers who defend a child-bearer's right to choice termination of pregnancy", Carolina said.
