JANUARY 20, 1995
"We used to organize actions at clinics knowing that we might be harassed, jostled and bruised," says NOW President Patricia Ireland, who is reportedly on a hit list circulated by anti-abortion extremists. "Now we must intensify our actions even though we know that we are at serious risk. This is not the time to back down."
Ireland will be in Boston Sunday (Jan. 22) to keynote a rally celebrating the Roe decision and protesting the most recent shootings in Brookline, Mass., in which two women clinic employees were killed and five other people were injured.
While the killer was still on the loose, NOW activists organized 1,000 people for a silent, candlelight vigil at one of the clinics, followed by a march to a synagogue for a rousing memorial service protesting the violence.
"We all have to turn our shock and anger and mourning and fear into bold action," says NOW President Patricia Ireland. "Our Boston activists did that instinctively in a crisis situation. Now the rest of us need to do it deliberately, by organizing huge crowds of people for the April 9 Rally for Women's Lives in Washington."
Although Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law called on anti-abortion activists to cease their protests, at least temporarily, other anti-abortion activists are escalating their rhetoric.
Father David Trosch of Mobile, Ala., who calls the murder of abortion providers "justifiable homicide," expanded his hit list Tuesday (Jan. 17) in an appearance on the Geraldo show. Trosch called for the murders of not only abortion rights supporters but anyone who delivers supplies to clinics and all women who use intrauterine devices or take birth control pills.
Efforts by the cardinal and Massachusetts' governor to bring people on both sides of the abortion issue together for discussions in the wake of the shootings are drawing harsh criticism from Massachusetts NOW President Ellen Convisser.
"It's time to stop treating us as two equal sides in a reasonable debate," she says. "Let's get it clear -- they are the perpetrators and we are the victims. Any discussion of how to de-escalate the situation should take place within the anti-choice community.
"We do not have anything to bring to the table," says Convisser. "We are not willing to say it's O.K. to shoot every sixth doctor or woman."
Videotapes show the gunman had been a frequent protester at the clinic, and he had reportedly attended meetings of both mainstream anti-abortion groups and Operation Rescue, according to Ellen Zucker of Boston NOW.
On Sunday Ireland will encourage Massachusetts NOW activists who have out-maneuvered O.R. blockades since 1988 to stand firm now.
Similar Roe anniversary events by NOW chapters are going forward in many states, including: New Jersey, California, Virginia, Illinois, North Carolina, Arkansas, Maryland, Texas, Minnesota, Kansas, Florida and Alaska. Capital City NOW will hold a candlelight vigil starting at 5 p.m. at the U.S. Supreme Court.
The chapter actions are part of NOW's 100 Days of Action, designed to counter the Republican's plans for the first 100 days of Congress and to galvanize support for the April 9 rally.
"These latest murders were the result of years of government tolerance -- bordering on indifference -- toward anti-abortion extremism, violence against women and gun violence generally," says Ireland.
"Although we had legislative victories on all three of those issues in the 103rd Congress, it was too little too late," she says. "Our message to the new Newt Congress at the Rally for Women's Lives will be that we want more in '95. We absolutely will not sit back and let them roll back our rights."