Valley Oak
10-07-2010, 06:42 PM
https://www.sonomagreenparty.org/pages/positions/eronpp.shtml
Escort for Planned Parenthood, a Personal Account
January 21, 2006
by Edward Roble
Hello all,
I just had a very interesting experience today. I was, for the very first time, an escort for Planned Parenthood. I did not, however, attend the march in SF celebrating the anniversary of Roe v. Wade (January 22nd, 1973).
There were less than a dozen people on either side of the sidewalk immediately in front of the Planned Parenthood clinic in SF. Most of the PP escorts were young women. Most of the protesters were old, white, males. Tell you something?
As someone who studied statistics and research methods I can tell you that the demography of these two groups is very, very revealing. The obvious differences in age, sex, and to some extent, race and religion, are no coincidence at all. They are clear indicators and factors in the abortion war in the US.
I arrived a little before 8am at the clinic this morning. Got some breakfast and then a large mocha at Pete's Coffee. More than one of the women professed to be atheists. One young lady who left the clinic this morning (not an escort) was sporting a Pagan pentacle! Yeah! So at least two or more Pagans were there representing our community. One of the escorts was a British lady in her fifties (a US resident) and we talked about the Sex Pistols in the 70's and how the British police stormed the boat this group was performing in and stopped the concert because they were singing: "God save the Queen, it's a fascist regime..." Another gal, a young lady attorney who studied in Moscow for four months and speaks Russian, kept our group organized and informed and acted as a leader.
Folks from the anti-choice group would yell at the young women entering the clinic: "PLEASE BEAR YOUR CHILD!" How arrogant these christian fanatics are, telling a Goddess what she has to do with her body and with one of the most sacred parts at that. Or they would yell: "MAY GOD CONVERT YOU!" Again, how incredibly arrogant to assume that everyone believes in the same deity that they do. But they don't give a shit. There is only one way and that's there's and women have to submit whether they like it or not.
I could go on with the events of today. When it was over about three hours later around 11am, I was informed that although there were more "protesters" today, this is a typical day. There were more anti-choice jerks today in San Francisco because different christian terrorist groups bussed in their brainless peons from all over the US to demonstrate against the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
When the old white males in their eighties limped out of their nice new car, they also dragged out grotesque billboards with fabricated and touched up images of mangled fetuses. These images are not even authentic because they are manufactured to create as much psychological shock as possible, deceive the public, and to intimidate the young women going into the clinic for an abortion.
Whatever the reasons for unwanted pregnancy, a woman's access to have an abortion will always be a right and a necessity, until the end of time. A society without a right to abortion (except for the wealthy) is a society of disempowered and subjugated women; a society of womens' fundamental rights denied.
A society without a right to have an abortion is necessarily a male dominated society where the sexes are grossly unequal.
The issue is not prevention. The issue is womens' right to have an abortion.
Abortion should be freely accessible by all women, including teenagers, and free of charge, as is in European countries, paid for by the state through high income taxes.
I attended the escort training that Planned Parenthood offers at its San Francisco office. Of the twenty or so people who attended the training, only three were males, myself included. Planned Parenthood constantly needs escorts because the religious right maintains constant siege on the abortion clinics. The right wing religious organizations are very generously funded, well organized, and very consistent in harassing young, scared, economically poor, pregnant women trying to get the services they need from Planned Parenthood, whether it be an abortion or simple birth control supplies and information.
If you are interested in helping to escort these young women in the face of intimidating crowds of people yelling and insulting them on their way to the clinic, please contact Planned Parenthood for the next escort training. They also mentioned that psychologically it is more effective when there are both male and female escorts as opposed to only female ones always in front of the clinics. The culture of conservative christianity in the U.S. is very bigoted against women and considers them second class people who are on the earth for the purposes of procreation and serving men only. For this reactionary sector of our society, it is essentially inappropriate for women to assume more and more the "roles of men," such as positions of wealth and power, especially publicly visible ones, exercising authority and leadership, and independence. In the 1990's alone, the religious right murdered nine doctors around the U.S.
Today in San Francisco there is a celebration of Roe v. Wade (January 22nd, 1973), the US Supreme Court decision that finally gave women their right to have an abortion. But the religious right has organized an anti-choice march in San Francisco the same day to protest the landmark decision. There are several womens groups and other organizations that put together a march to celebrate this right.
Contact Planned Parenthood (www.plannedparenthood.org) or Naral (www.naral.org) and they will give you all of the information you need if you wish to get involved.
Escort for Planned Parenthood, a Personal Account
January 21, 2006
by Edward Roble
Hello all,
I just had a very interesting experience today. I was, for the very first time, an escort for Planned Parenthood. I did not, however, attend the march in SF celebrating the anniversary of Roe v. Wade (January 22nd, 1973).
There were less than a dozen people on either side of the sidewalk immediately in front of the Planned Parenthood clinic in SF. Most of the PP escorts were young women. Most of the protesters were old, white, males. Tell you something?
As someone who studied statistics and research methods I can tell you that the demography of these two groups is very, very revealing. The obvious differences in age, sex, and to some extent, race and religion, are no coincidence at all. They are clear indicators and factors in the abortion war in the US.
I arrived a little before 8am at the clinic this morning. Got some breakfast and then a large mocha at Pete's Coffee. More than one of the women professed to be atheists. One young lady who left the clinic this morning (not an escort) was sporting a Pagan pentacle! Yeah! So at least two or more Pagans were there representing our community. One of the escorts was a British lady in her fifties (a US resident) and we talked about the Sex Pistols in the 70's and how the British police stormed the boat this group was performing in and stopped the concert because they were singing: "God save the Queen, it's a fascist regime..." Another gal, a young lady attorney who studied in Moscow for four months and speaks Russian, kept our group organized and informed and acted as a leader.
Folks from the anti-choice group would yell at the young women entering the clinic: "PLEASE BEAR YOUR CHILD!" How arrogant these christian fanatics are, telling a Goddess what she has to do with her body and with one of the most sacred parts at that. Or they would yell: "MAY GOD CONVERT YOU!" Again, how incredibly arrogant to assume that everyone believes in the same deity that they do. But they don't give a shit. There is only one way and that's there's and women have to submit whether they like it or not.
I could go on with the events of today. When it was over about three hours later around 11am, I was informed that although there were more "protesters" today, this is a typical day. There were more anti-choice jerks today in San Francisco because different christian terrorist groups bussed in their brainless peons from all over the US to demonstrate against the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
When the old white males in their eighties limped out of their nice new car, they also dragged out grotesque billboards with fabricated and touched up images of mangled fetuses. These images are not even authentic because they are manufactured to create as much psychological shock as possible, deceive the public, and to intimidate the young women going into the clinic for an abortion.
Whatever the reasons for unwanted pregnancy, a woman's access to have an abortion will always be a right and a necessity, until the end of time. A society without a right to abortion (except for the wealthy) is a society of disempowered and subjugated women; a society of womens' fundamental rights denied.
A society without a right to have an abortion is necessarily a male dominated society where the sexes are grossly unequal.
The issue is not prevention. The issue is womens' right to have an abortion.
Abortion should be freely accessible by all women, including teenagers, and free of charge, as is in European countries, paid for by the state through high income taxes.
I attended the escort training that Planned Parenthood offers at its San Francisco office. Of the twenty or so people who attended the training, only three were males, myself included. Planned Parenthood constantly needs escorts because the religious right maintains constant siege on the abortion clinics. The right wing religious organizations are very generously funded, well organized, and very consistent in harassing young, scared, economically poor, pregnant women trying to get the services they need from Planned Parenthood, whether it be an abortion or simple birth control supplies and information.
If you are interested in helping to escort these young women in the face of intimidating crowds of people yelling and insulting them on their way to the clinic, please contact Planned Parenthood for the next escort training. They also mentioned that psychologically it is more effective when there are both male and female escorts as opposed to only female ones always in front of the clinics. The culture of conservative christianity in the U.S. is very bigoted against women and considers them second class people who are on the earth for the purposes of procreation and serving men only. For this reactionary sector of our society, it is essentially inappropriate for women to assume more and more the "roles of men," such as positions of wealth and power, especially publicly visible ones, exercising authority and leadership, and independence. In the 1990's alone, the religious right murdered nine doctors around the U.S.
Today in San Francisco there is a celebration of Roe v. Wade (January 22nd, 1973), the US Supreme Court decision that finally gave women their right to have an abortion. But the religious right has organized an anti-choice march in San Francisco the same day to protest the landmark decision. There are several womens groups and other organizations that put together a march to celebrate this right.
Contact Planned Parenthood (www.plannedparenthood.org) or Naral (www.naral.org) and they will give you all of the information you need if you wish to get involved.