Hope everyone is having a great summer. We’ve been trying to keep the flow of messages to a minimum, as we know everyone is going in and out of town a lot. However, we wanted to let everyone know about a new initiative that we are a part of, called the New York Coalition for Abortion Clinic Defense. The group came together two weeks ago to help protect the women trying to access care at Dr. Emily’s Women’s Health Center in the Bronx, but hopes to become a larger group that can defend abortion rights across the city. Currently, anti-choice right wingers (they are also anti-welfare, anti-birth control and oddly enough, anti-vegetarian), harass the women going into the clinic.
We have begun weekly escort and clinic defense at Dr. Emily’s every Saturday, in anticipation of a much larger group of right-wingers who will be coming in September for “40 Days of Life”. Last year they bussed in so many anti-choice bigots that Dr. Emily’s clinic nearly had to shut down. We don’t want to allow that to occur again this year and we’ll all be back in school at that time, so we can be part of a larger mobilization to help keep the clinic open. It is the only affordable women’s health clinic in the South Bronx which provides abortions.
Below is the information about this week’s clinic defense – and we will be out there every Saturday.
In addition, this summer, the uptown ISO has been organizing around LGBT equality, support for the protests in Iran, our ongoing criminal justice and anti-death penalty activism, support for the Stella D’Oro strike in the Bronx. This past week we’ve been central to the struggle of teachers and parents to stop charter school from taking over the buildings of PS 123 and PS 375 in Harlem.If you’d like to get involved in any of these struggles, we meet every Thursday at 7pm at St. Mary’s Church, 126th St between Amsterdam and Broadway.
Hope to see you soon!
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Please join New York Coalition for Abortion Clinic Defense (NYCACD) at Dr. Emily’s Women’s Health Center to support Women’s rights!
Dr. Emily’s clinic has been the target of anti-abortion protesters. These protesters offer free sonograms, (administered by unqualified people outside the medical field) anti-abortion pamphlets and display plastic fetuses in order to try to convince women seeking abortions to change their minds. Worse, the protesters plan to begin a 40-day vigil in late September, see http://www.40daysforlife.com. This is the time to defend a woman’s right to choose abortions, and right now that means defending women’s physical access to the clinic. Join us to escort women into the clinic safely and protest those who try to coerce them away.
Last Saturday, we attended our first clinic defense. While we were there, the anti-choice protesters couldn’t talk to any women entering the clinic. Since they know we’re planning to visit the clinic again, it would be substantial if we had more people come join and support us! With all that said, we would like to invite pro-choice and pro-abortion organizations to help fight our cause. If participation is in high numbers for this upcoming clinic defense on Saturday the 25th, we would like to host two different shifts, one from 8:00 -10:00 AM and the other at 10:00AM to 12:00 PM. If you think your organization can attend this clinic defense, please RSVP with the shift you are interested in hosting as soon as possible. Individuals should also RSVP. If you have questions, do not hesitate to ask them with your RSVP.
When: Saturday, July 25th
1st Shift: 8:00 AM to 10:00AM
2nd Shift: 10:00AM to 12:00PM
Where: Dr. Emily’s Women’s Health Center
560 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, NY
Directions: Take the 6 train to 149th St.
To RSVP: nycacd@gmail.com
It is time we stand in solidarity with those women wanting to exercise their right to choose and to control their body!
Barnard-Columbia International Socialist Organization 