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Indybay Feature

"Walk for Life" Counter-Protest

by renegade (renegade [at] luxomedia.com)
January 21, 2006 - The second annual "Walk for Life" rally brought in thousands of right-wing christian fundamentalists and abortion opponents to San Francisco's waterfront. They were met by a determined group of pro-choice advocates and women's rights activists bearing green balloons and coathangers, letting them know their hypocritical right-wing pro-Bush patriarchal agenda is not welcome here.
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Police lines formed a buffer zone between the parallel marches, but the pro-choice contingent suffered more restrictions. Many abortion opponents were allowed to roam freely and cross the line to confront protesters - exhibiting their religious zealotry and condemning everyone as "sinners".
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Smiley faces, rosaries and photos of aborted children. A pro-choice supporter asked them, "What about the war and the thousands that have died?". Their was no response on that, but a only a repetitive prayer: "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for "the" sinners now and at the hour of death. Amen." Same response when another protester asked them about the sexual abuse of children in the Catholic church.
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by full of grace?
just to clarify, it sounds like they were praying a very common catholic prayer called the "hail mary" and it's supposed to say
"hail mary mother of god pray for _us_ sinners now and at the hour of our death." did they change the words to "pray for _the_ sinners"? if so shame on them for using a prayer for their own self serving purposes. if they didn't and were just reciting the prayer as traditionally prayed, just ignore them and don't read too much into it.
by Womens rights defender
I'm sure some will disgree with me but i think the religous right won a victory today . They had at least 10, 000 in their march but we had only 1000 tops . Also their contingent was far more multi-racial, multi-ethnic than ours . ( Very few African-Americans but significant numbers of Asians and Latinos ) I want to emphasize i am not in any way attacking those who spent a lot of time and energy building the counterdemo . Kudos to B.A.C.O.R., the I.S.O., F.S.P., G.P. and the P.F.P. and all others who worked hard . But i'm very critical of those more ''mainstream '' progressives who didn't endorse the counterdemo or who issued only paper endorsements . The National Abortion rights action league stayed away, instead organizing a candlelight vigil tonight . So did Planned Parenthood . The San Francisco Labor council endorsed but did absolutely nada to mobilize . (i saw far more union jackets and caps among the antiabortion marchers than among us ! ) Yes, i know that the Catholic Church bused people in from thruout the state and no, this doesn't mean that the anti-abortion fanatics have a mass base in the Bay area . But no matter how you spin it today was a propaganda victory for those clerical reactionaries . Please let us not try to deceive ourselves .
by %
This fascist hate march was about the same size as last year, again with lots of people bused from the Central Valley and the Sierra foothills. It was mostly white and it was totally contrived as it was all about promoting votes for Bush & Co., using abortion as a cover. You can be sure in the next election, as in every election, the Black vote and the Latino vote will be overwhelmingly against these fascists. IT IS THE WHITE POPULATION WHICH VOTES IN THE MAJORITY FOR FASCISM AND THUS IT IS A GOOD SIGN THAT WHITES WERE THE MAJORITY IN OPPOSING THIS FASCIST MARCH. And this does not detract for the efforts of the non-whites, which were much appreciated by all attending. As to endorsements, this is the same problem with endorsements for all our demonstrations. As far as I am concerned, these organizations that endorse but never show up should not be listed on any leaflet. This is particularly true of the large organizations which have the means and numbers to bus people to our demonstrations but never do. We were there and we terrified these stinking bourgeois Babbitts so much they were very subdued and they felt it necesary to have their fellow fascists in uniform turn out by the hundreds. We did a good job of costing the City of San Francisco a fortune for this fascist hate march as the City decided to send much of the 2200 member police department to protect the fascists, and the Board of Supervisors, two of whom were there (Mirkirami and Daly), will have to think twice before allowing this fascist hate march in San Francisco. I certainly remember when abortion was illegal and our demonstrations were non-existent or just a handful of people. We were there and I am glad I was there and I will be there again and again until these hatemongers are gone.
by Women Rights Defender
I have to respectfully disagree with %Sunday . First I have to say that as much as i politically oppose the Catholic Church you can't characterize it as ''fascist ''. ( The Catholic church thru it's various diocises , schools, etc, organized and paid for their moblization yesterday ) Secondly they increased their numbers by double from last year , we decreased by 2/3 /.Last i don't know about you but i would like to BREAK the largely working class base of these reactionaries from their misleaders .Many of them really don;t think about the potential consquences of their movement's demands . For example last year several members of my union marched with them . I pointed out to them the obvious result of a illegalization of abortion , that thousands , maybe tens of thousands of women would go to prison . As for abortion providers , maybe death row for murder ! I asked them were they prepared to accept the type of police state needed to carry out that type of repression . They were shook, hadn't really thought about that aspect. I doubt if they had changed their minds about the morality of abortion but Maybe i missed them but i didn't see them among the anti-abortion marchers yesterday . My point is if we write off every practicing Catholic, protestant , Muslim , etc. that opposes Abortion we are doomed . And some of our tactics yesterday, cursing them, giving them the finger, waving signs with sexually explicit language at them, solidifies the ranks with their far right leaders .
by As much as I hate their policies
Yelling won't do it. It makes us look impotent. I don't feel good about yesterday. We have do beter, be smarter about how we deal with this.
I am 100 percent reproductive rights and know that abortion is not a moral wrong...but we have to change the culture.
by Walker4life
We were not saying" Holy Mary mother of God pray for _the_ sinners now and the hour of our death. Amen. We were saying" Holy Mary Mother of God, Pray for US sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. I should know because you guys took a picture of me while I was praying the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the walk yesterday. We are all sinners, but thankfully God is merciful. The Rosary was very commen during the walk but it was not the only way we responded to the pro-abortionists, We were also praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet, just fyi.
Viva Cristo Rey!
In Christ,
Walker4life

by the Iraq war, the death penalty
The lies, deceit and corruption in the Bush admin.?????
by Walker4life
sorry but that post just didn't make sense. Could you explain further, let me also just clarify that there were many democrats in the walk that were oppsed to the war.
And let me further say that the walk WAS NOT ABOUT THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION. We were walking for life, and for women who have been hurt and have DIED because of legal abortion. Does the name Sharon Hamplton ring a bell? Well is should becuase she was killed of a LEGAL abortion in California. And if you think that there are people who lie in goverment maybe you should pray for their souls.
In Christ,
Walker4life
by Women's rights defender
A few questions . Are you for the illegalization of abortion ? If abortion was made illegal would you be for women who would still manage to obtain a abortion being arrested, prosecuted , and imprisoned for that ''crime "" ? (Allegelly according to one of your leaders , approx. 1.3 million abortions were performed in the U.S. last year / So according to your theology over one million women committed ''murder'' last year , correct ? ) Last what about abortion providers , are you for them getting the death penality ? If your answers are no to the above , why are you a willing foot soldier in a movement who's leaders advocate exactly the above . Do you really want a theocractic police state .
by Fuck religion
So, you can mis-characterize the "many Democrats and anti-war" people in the anit-choice crowd if you want, but you know anyone that falls into those categories are truly a minority. The bulk are brainwashed unquestioning pro-Bush mindless sheep. We don't need to take a poll to know that most of those nut-cases voted for the biggest failure of a president in history--and were gullable enough to believe this amdinistration's propaganda, supporting the war, and of course, the death penalty. Hypocrisy.
by to women right defender
Many times women have been forced into abortions, where's the choice in that? Many women have been strapped down during the abortion even though they don't want it. The real murders are the abortionists.
I challenge you to find 50 names of women who have been killed by "illegal" abortions, please list the website where the medical documents can be found.

Totus Tous.
by strapped down
Names are confidential of course, so don't be such a snoop. If you want real statistics (which I doubt) go here.
by Totus Tuos
What you are defining as snoopyness is really a person researching to see if you have any real evidence to support your claim.
Here are some horrific stories about women who have been murdered by LEGAL abortions. http://www.lifedynamics.com/Pro-life_Group/Pro-choice_Women/

Totus Tuos


by Toady Too hasn't done homework
Lazy!

Please see this other thread Toto:
http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/01/1797009_comment.php#1806837

I know you don't really like facts but we already gave you some excellent sources of the safety of abortion relative to carrying a child to term. Do your homework!

repost:
From the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (aah- what do they know!):

Risks: Abortion is a low-risk procedure. An early abortion has less risk than a later one. ***Both are lower risk than carrying a pregnancy to term.***
http://www.medem.com/medlb/article_detaillb.cfm?article_ID=ZZZ2K98T77C&sub_cat=2006
---------------
Urban Myth about breast cancer and abortion:
The relationship between induced and spontaneous abortion and breast cancer risk has been the subject of extensive research beginning in the late 1950s. Until the mid-1990s, the evidence was inconsistent. Findings from some studies suggested there was no increase in risk of breast cancer among women who had had an abortion, while findings from other studies suggested there was an increased risk. Most of these studies, however, were flawed in a number of ways that can lead to unreliable results. Only a small number of women were included in many of these studies, and for most, the data were collected only after breast cancer had been diagnosed, and women’s histories of miscarriage and abortion were based on their “self-report” rather than on their medical records. Since then, better-designed studies have been conducted. These newer studies examined large numbers of women, collected data before breast cancer was found, and gathered medical history information from medical records rather than simply from self-reports, thereby generating more reliable findings. ***The newer studies consistently showed no association between induced and spontaneous abortions and breast cancer risk.***
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/abortion-miscarriage

-----------

US Gov. link to facts on abortion:
http://search.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/query?MAX=500&SERVER1=server1&SERVER2=server2&PARAMETER=Abortion&DISAMBIGUATION=true&FUNCTION=search
by Pro-vida
nice try with my name
Totus Tuus
by Pro-vida
well when you start reading my links I'll start reading yours. Nice try with my name, but I'd be frustrated too if I was protesting with only 500(or less) like minded people against a crowd of 15,000 people.
Pro-Vida!
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