Here is the text of a leaflet distributed by the Bay Area Coalition to Stop Operation Rescue: Pro-Choice Activists Take a Stand Defend Women's Health Clinics Stop "Operation Rescue" What does "pro-choice" mean? To be "pro-choice" means to support the right of people to their choices about such things as birth control, abortion, prenatal care, midwifery, infertility treatment, donor insemination, adoption, childcare, and sexual orientation. To be "pro-choice" means to work to eradicate situations where people are not offered choices - as in forced sterilization, forced abortion, infant mortality, forced motherhood, rape, domestic violence, hunger, and the objectification of women's bodies. Policies which deny choice are particularly directed toward low income people, people of color both in the U.S. and around the world, lesbians and gays, and immigrants. Reproductive choice is an integral part of a larger political struggle for self-determination. What is B.A.C.A.O.R.? The Bay Area Coalition Against Operation Rescue is a community coalition of pro-choice activists. BACOAR provides political and direct physical support for women's clinics targeted by anti-abortion blockaders. BACAOR is part of a nationwide public effort to stop "Operation Rescue" and to defend access to reproductive health services including abortion and birth control. Abortion Facts Quiz True or False (answers at end) 1. In the U.S., legal abortion in the first three months of pregnancy is seven times more safe than childbirth. 2. Getting a legal abortion does not endanger a woman's ability to bear children in the future. 3. Complications from botched illegal abortions is the leading cause of death of women of childbearing age in countries where abortion is illegal. 4. In the U.S., about 30% of all pregnant women choose to terminate their pregnancies; this amounts to more than 1.5 million abortions performed each year. 5. The vast majority of women who have had abortions do not regret their decision. 6. In the U.S., the majority of both Catholic and Protestants support legal abortion as a woman's choice. 7. The majority of "abortion clinics" offer many other services besides abortion, such as pregnancy tests, gynecology, infertility treatment, and pre-natal care. 8. Between 1984 and 1987, more than 77 abortion providers have been the targets of arson or bombings carried out by the anti-abortion movement in the U.S. 9. Wherever public funding for abortion is eliminated, sterilization rates for poor women and women of color increases dramatically. 10. Historically, governments and church hierarchies have tried to control sexuality and reproduction most strongly during periods leading up to major wars. (Answers on next page.) All are true! Sources: U.S. Centers for Disease Control (#1,2); International Reference Center for Abortion Research (#3); The Alan Gutmacher Institute (#4); National Abortion Federation (#5,7,8); Gallup Poll (#6); Committee to Defend Reproductive Rights (#9). What is "Operation Rescue"? Operation "Rescue" (OR) is a movement of right wing Christian Fundamentalists that aims to make abortion illegal and to take away reproductive rights in general. They claim that to prevent conception and birth is murder. OR uses a nationwide network of sympathetic churches to organize local followings. Periodically the group's leadership will arrive in a given city to launch a one-day to two-week series of actions against abortion providers. OR has launched attacks in six major cities since May 1988 with arrests ranging from 50-500 people. OR is supported by and immersed in the broader circle of right wing Christian activists. Randall Terry, the group's leader, has appeared with Pat Robertson on the "700 Club". Recent P.T.L. support came from Jerry Falwell who donated $10,000 and officially called for the Christian community to support OR. Unlike most direct action groups who oppose the law, OR's tactics are applauded by the far right. The group has an excellent rapport with most local law enforcement agencies. OR's leadership distributes false information on the medical and emotional side effects of abortion to their following and to pregnant women. They use sensationalistic films to convince Christians that OR's mission is to save lives (of unborn children) using "civil disobedience." Don't be fooled by "Operation Rescue's" misuse of words. OR would more appropriately be named "Operation Harassment". "Pro-life" translates into "make women die" (from illegal abortions). And the civil disobedience of OR is just the opposite of the tradition developed by such leaders as Martin Luther King and Ghandi. Whereas genuine civil disobedience is done to promote freedom and liberation, blockading women's clinics is done to oppose reproductive rights and individual choice, to repress sexuality and to reverse the feminist movement's achievements. You can help BACAOR protect women's clinics from right-wing harassment by getting involved in: BACAOR planning meetings phone networking pro-choice actions client escorting emergency response network for clinic defense early morning clinic watches clinic vigils media outreach and publicity speakers bureau fundraising/donations data processing video production typesetting and printing banner and sign making letter writing Support Your Rights! Contact BACAOR, 1820 Franklin St #45, Oakland, CA 94612, (415) 271-8030 What are the issues behind the right wing's attack on abortion? Attacks on abortion rights are taking place in a climate of growing repression and reactionary political maneuvering: AIDS quarantine initiatives, racist violence, attacks on immigrants, opposition to sex education, increased gay bashing, harassment of youth of color in the name of a "war on drugs," increased Contra funding, and the promotion of Rambo-style patriotism. Right-wing spokespeople reveal how they think abortion relates to their overall political agenda: "If women can get abortions, then how can we [men] control them any more?" -- an anti-abortionist explaining to the press why he was picketing a women's clinic "The abortion issue is the door through which many people come into conservative politics, but they don't stop there. Their convictions against abortion are like the first in a series of dominoes. Then we lead them to concern about sexual ethics and standards among young people. This leads to opposition to secular humanism. Then... we point out that secular humanism is identified as both the godfather and the royal road to socialism and communism which points the way to commitments to minimally regulated free enterprise at home and to aggressive foreign and military politics to counter the communist threat from Russia and its many surrogates." -- Richard Viguerie, right wing theorist You can help replace this right wing agenda with a progressive one!