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“A dream you dream alone is only a dream; a dream you dream together is reality.” — Yoko Ono
“In my heart, I think a woman has two choices: either she’s a feminist or a masochist.” –Gloria Steinem
Aug
31
They’ve Only Just Begun
Filed Under abortion, anti-choice extremism, misogyny, patriarchy, politics, religious fanaticism, reproductive justice, social conservatives, violence against women and girls, women’s health | Posted by Cara |
There’s no doubt about it: reproductive rights are currently undergoing widespread attack.
If it’s not the Missouri attacks against Planned Parenthood, it’s the ongoing legislative and judicial attacks against Dr. Tiller in Kansas.
And now, it’s the ire of anti-abortion protesters in Illinois. But no, putting together a 1,200 person protest in front of the new Planned Parenthood building was not enough. Holding up the City Council with over six hours of “testimony” against the clinic was not enough.
Now the Aurora mayor is investigating Planned Parenthood for fraud. Why? Because, for obvious reasons, they tried to keep their presence quiet until the opening.
The building permits were issued to Gemini Office Development. The sign at the construction site said Gemini Health Center.
But as he watched the installation of bulletproof windows and security cameras at the office space in Aurora, Ill., a worker began to get suspicious. He told his priest, and the priest went to an anti-abortion group.
And late last week, the protesters went to work.
Gemini is owned by Planned Parenthood, which will operate the 22,000-square-foot clinic in the conservative Chicago suburb. The facility will provide birth control, gynecological exams, disease screening and abortions for women through the middle of their second trimester.
. . . The protests have prompted Aurora’s mayor to hire an outside lawyer — at $185 an hour — to determine whether permits for the clinic were granted on fraudulent grounds. “We want to ensure our laws were properly followed,” said Carie Anne Ergo, a spokeswoman for the city of about 170,000.
Steve Trombley, president and chief executive of the Chicago-area Planned Parenthood affiliate, said: “We are absolutely confident that everything we did was legal.”
He said that Gemini, a limited liability partnership, was set up to mask Planned Parenthood’s involvement to keep protesters away while the $7.5-million clinic was being built.
“It should be evident . . . why we did that,” Trombley said. “This land was zoned for medical services. The city didn’t ask what type of medical services.”
You know, it seems pretty obvious to me. If this is the current reaction, imagine how long construction would have taken with a sign out front that said “Planned Parenthood.” Protesters would have tried to block workers and the site, tried to boycott the company that did the building, and made an even bigger mess at the city council, including trying to take Planned Parenthood to court over bullshit permit and building regulations, purposely trying to slow down construction with absolutely no basis. They’ve done it all before.
And to the worker who originally “figured out” that the building was going to be a facility that provides abortions, I have to say that the bullet-proof windows say a lot more about you and your buddies in Operation Rescue than it does about the facility. Am I the only one who sees the irony of Planned Parenthood getting found out by a guy who noticed the bullet-proof windows, when people like him are the reason that the bullet-proof windows are needed in the first place?
The thing is, these attacks aren’t going to stop. The clinic may open– I assume that it will, and I hope that it does. But it will be far from the end of this story. Protests outside of clinic workers’ homes are still being heavily considered. And if that doesn’t scare the shit out of you, hopefully this will:
Both Planned Parenthood officials and opponents of the clinic called the intensity and size of protests thus far unprecedented.
“This is an historic reaction, in terms of numbers, intensity, commitment and creativity,” Scheidler said. “I hope this is the beginning of massive, nationwide, backlash against Planned Parenthood.”
For his part, Trombley said he hasn’t seen this kind of intensity since the 1990s, with anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, “when people would travel around the country in huge groups and chain themselves to the doors to block access.
“At that time, these groups also escalated their ground tactics to threats, but in some cases, they actually carried them out,” he said.
And tragically, we all remember how the anti-abortion furor of the 90s turned out. I refuse to believe that the leaders of this “movement” are unaware of the violence they can incite. That means it’s either purposeful, or they just don’t care. And it really fucking frightens me.
Stay tuned.
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“Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.” — Susan B. Anthony
it’s also really ironic, since the sanctity of human life is what they claim to be fighting for. not an original comment, i know, but it never fails to amaze me.
“If this is the current reaction, imagine how long construction would have taken with a sign out front that said “Planned Parenthood.”
EXACTLY.
“…bullet-proof windows say a lot more about you and your buddies in Operation Rescue than it does about the facility.”
Word.