| Hello! I am writing to you as friends and activists- please help spread the word about an important event to defend reproductive justice, queer rights, and to stand up against right wing bigots coming to San Francisco to march against abortion on January 23rd, 2010. The Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights (BACORR) is having open meetings to organize a counterprotest and we need activists, community members, healthcare workers, feminists, and radicals to help out! Please see the info below on how to get involved: come to a meeting, tell your friends and community to come out, and get this email and attached flier out far and wide. Thank you! In Solidarity, Anita "Durt" O'Shea BACORR Dear Defenders of Women’s Rights,
The Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights (BACORR) is in need of your organization’s vitality and strength in the reproductive justice movement presently. We are a multi-issue coalition that formed in 1988 in response to the militantly anti-choice Operation Rescue staging protests in front of women’s healthcare clinics throughout the Bay Area. With a number of activists, organizations and plenty of passion, we outsmarted and defeated Operation Rescue and effectively forced them to cease their siege on Bay Area clinics.
In recent years an anti-choice, anti-gay grouping called “Walk for Life—West Coast” has come to San Francisco around the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. And each January, BACORR stages a vibrant march and rally in support of reproductive justice. Funded by the local Catholic archdiocese, Walk for Life busses in tens of thousands of constituents primarily from church affiliations around California to march on the Embarcadero, holding signs stating that “Women Deserve Better than Abortion,” among other signs more viciously condemning the autonomy of women and all oppressed groups. Saturday, January 23, 2010 will be the sixth year that we convene on San Francisco ’s Embarcadero. We gather not just because San Francisco is a progressive city, but because nationwide and around the world the voices of women are being silenced due to restricted access to reproductive health services, among countless other factors. We need a movement that stands strong in defense of women.
Today we are faced with conservative talking heads like Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly telling us that public healthcare will be the end of the world though eighty percent of the US population supports it, and an ever-expanding fear of women choosing their own path independent of church or state interference. There has also been a recent rise of extremist acts by the religious right exemplified by the assassination of Dr. George Tiller on May 31, 2009, who worked valiantly in the name of trusting women, as his famous button stated. It is more important than ever to stand up against right-wing bigotry.
The reproductive justice movement needs unity and revitalization. I am writing today in hopes that you and your organization will consider being part of BACORR as we plan for the sixth annual counter-demonstration and march in support of reproductive justice for all. Again, it will be held on Saturday, January 23, 2010 with a location near SF’s Embarcadero. This year we are hoping to have enough support in order to stage a Healthcare Fair. When asked about birth control or other means that might prevent pregnancy, anti-choice “Walk for Life—West Coast” organizers state that that is too political an issue, and that they are simply marching because “woman deserve better than abortion.” But they refuse to tell us what exactly women deserve.
BACORR stands for universal healthcare; free and accessible abortion on demand; no forced sterilization of women of color; pre- and post-natal care and childcare for all; safe and accessible contraceptives; an end to discrimination against people of color, queer, immigrant, and youth communities; embracing (not controlling or denying) sexuality; providing non-moralistic education in our public schools, and much more.
Please attend an upcoming working meeting on Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 7pm in the Resource Room of the Women’s Building which is located at 3543 18th Street, (between Valencia and Guerrero) San Francisco, in which we will be discussing ideas and actions for the January 23 Day of Action for Reproductive Justice. Another meeting will take place in the same room on Tuesday, November 10, also at 7pm. If you are interested in future organizing meetings please contact BACORR at bacorrinfo@yahoo.com or call Marit at 415-864-1278. If you would like to endorse this year’s demonstration please send a check for $25 made out to BACORR to: BACORR c/o New Valencia Hall, 625 Larkin Street, Suite 202 , San Francisco , CA 94109 .
In solidarity,
Marit Knutson Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights (BACORR) |