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“A dream you dream alone is only a dream; a dream you dream together is reality.” — Yoko Ono
Dec
27
Two Planned Parenthood Clinics Vandalized on Christmas
Filed Under abortion, assholes, misogyny, religious fanaticism, reproductive justice, violence against women and girls, women’s health | Posted by Cara |
Two Planned Parenthood clinics were attacked in Albuquerque, New Mexico . . . on Christmas Day.
Don’t even try to tell me that this wasn’t the work of crazy Christian extremists who thought that they were sending some sort of message by committing the vandalism on Christmas. And I’m sure that their “presents” made Baby Jesus very happy. After all, not everyone can afford frankincense.
According to Cecile Richards, the clinics are okay and open for business. Thankfully. One had its windows broken, the other had its roof set on fire. A few weeks ago, there was another arson attack in Albuquerque against an independent abortion clinic. Authorities, of course, are looking into it and are assuming a connection.
These kinds of cases are difficult. They are terrorist attacks, though I’m sure that the Feds won’t treat them as such. They are designed to scare people, to intimidate women into not seeking medical care and to make volunteers and employees think twice about coming into work. They purposely imply that something worse might be coming (and I hope like hell that it’s not). So it leaves us with the question: if spreading fear is what they want, do we write about it? I say yes, not only because people do indeed deserve to know the risks no matter how small, but also because the public deserves to know how fucking nuts the forced-birth proponents really are.
And they are fucking nuts. They also couldn’t give a shit less about accuracy. PP doesn’t exactly advertise widely where they perform abortions, but if I had to take a guess, I’d say that the it’s a very small chance that they would have two abortion clinics in Albuquerque. The medical equipment is expensive, and so is the added security. It wouldn’t make sense.
But though they pretend otherwise, the antis aren’t just after abortion. I live a block away from a PP clinic. It’s a very small one, in a small town, and is only open one day a week (and it’s not where I do my volunteering). Thursday is not the day that it’s open. And they do not perform abortions at this clinic. But who was standing outside today? The same people who have been standing out there a few times a week for over a month now, two older, retired men and one woman holding anti-abortion signs. There’s something very clear here: either they are too fucking stupid to do their research before standing in the freezing Upstate NY cold, or they just love misleading people. I’m voting for the latter. Again: they’re not just after abortion. No matter what the signs say. They’re going for your birth control and your pap smears. And they’re not particularly bound by ethics.
That I know all of this to be true doesn’t make writing about it any easier of a decision. I don’t like scaring people. The very last thing I would ever want is to have someone read this post and decide to not seek medical treatment or volunteer — as I’ve said, in reality the risks are extremely small. So I wouldn’t write this lightly. I wouldn’t write about it at all if I didn’t think that it needed to be said. But sadly, I do.
UPDATE: Two arrests have been made in the case of arson against the independent clinic earlier this month.
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“Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.” — Susan B. Anthony
No evidence whatsoever that religion is involved in this. Just some dumb men who think they should have a say in what happens to their children. I do hope they have the book thrown at them because arson is a serious crime, but do you get most of your exercise leaping to conclusions?
Sickening. The people who attacked these clinics are definitely the Christian version of al-Qaida.
do you get most of your exercise leaping to conclusions?
I don’t, Carol. My exercise comes from the same place that most feminist exercise does: lesbian orgies, skipping into abortion clinics, petting my 25 cats, ripping Bibles in half with my bear hands, breaking up families (great resistance training) and slapping babies just for fun. Why, where do you get yours? Does the extreme denial it takes to pretend that anti-abortion extremists who commit violence aren’t connected to fundamentalist Christian groups build muscle mass?
Actually there’s only one PP abortion clinic in Albuquerque. The other one does stuff like pap smears, offer cheap pre-natal vitamins, and other related reproductive health care.
So I guess having poor women die of undetected cervical cancer is also on the so-called “pro-life” agenda.
Also, the independent clinic that was destroyed earlier this month is in the middle of a bunch of regular doctor’s offices and dentist’s and stuff. Not to mention near the biggest emergency trauma center in the state. If that fire had spread, I guess all that stuff is expendable, too.
And no connection to religion? What? I guess they just *happened* to pick Christmas day?
Actually there’s only one PP abortion clinic in Albuquerque. The other one does stuff like pap smears, offer cheap pre-natal vitamins, and other related reproductive health care.
I guess that my suspicions were right then.