Defend Abortion Rights! We Will Not Go Back!

Defend Abortion Rights!
Thursday, August 11th 7PM
UC Berkeley, 106 Wheeler Hall

There is an immediate urgency to defend women's
rights. We need to build a movement with a strong
response to attacks on our rights--to
be at the abortion clinics to keep them open and safe;
to tell Congress that if they will not filibuster
right-wing nominations to the courts, we will on the
streets; to confront the right wherever they rear
their heads; to
debate and discuss strategy and tactics to move
our struggle forward.

Some of the issues that make this meeting so
important:

**John Roberts' confirmation to the Supreme Court
seems inevitable--many Democrats, including Sen. Diane
Feinstein, have said they will not filibuster, despite
the fact that he has continuously lobbied to overturn
Roe v. Wade.

**Conservatives are forcing Proposition 73, the
Parental Notification Initiative (PNI), which
approximates
an invasive parental consent law, to be on the ballot
in
either November or the early spring (if the Special
Election in November fails) in California.

**This past month, the Crusade for Life has felt
emboldened enough to travel the state of California
harassing women outside abortion clinics. "Walk For
Life" plans to have another march in San Francisco
in January of 2006.

**Nearly 90% of counties in the US have no access to
abortion providers. Access to any contraception at
all is under further attack: the Workplace Religious
Freedom Act, currently under consideration in the
Senate, gives pharmacists the right to refuse to fill
any contraception prescriptions, emergency or
otherwise, if it goes against their faith.

**Women still make $0.75 for every $1.00 a man earns,
and decent, affordable childcare is for too many women
an unattainable dream.