But are WE turning the tables on them? Anybody from our camp going around and noting all their license plate numbers and taking photos of them and posting those online during these confrontations? I mean SHEESH! They don't hesitate to post personal info about doctors and clinic workers' whereabouts, home addresses, names and ages of children and where they go to school, photos of their house and front yard, photos of their cars, and photos of them. And sometimes outright stalking is involved!
We have to figure out in what other ways they can be deterred, or thwarted, or prevented from harassing women - whether they arrive at these clinics to seek abortion counseling or they're coming in for a pap smear. These folks evidently don't let anything stop them - they're equal-opportunity obstructors. We need to respond, but nothing that would incite violence of any sort, for heaven's sake.
And we need to figure out, and try to anticipate, further possible ways they can be expected to strike against pro-choicers and women's health clinics and health care providers. We have to think of work-arounds. Some of them won't be immediate, either. Some of it might be research into different kinds of contraception. I'm just ruminating here. How can we - or how else can we - best safeguard and preserve, indeed, strengthen a woman's right to choose?
I would suggest donations to Planned Parenthood and NARAL if one felt inclined to go that way.
MOST CRITICALLY: As I write this, I realize that the most basic and effective tactic for winning not just the battles but the wars - is to get out there and VOTE! As often as the opportunity presents itself - EVERY election. EVERYWHERE. Don't stay home because you think your vote doesn't count or won't matter. A mere 500 more Florida votes for Al Gore would have avoided the whole bush/cheney era, all those lies to sell a monstrous war, all those legs blown off, all those flag-draped caskets coming home in the dark because those cheesy chickenshits forbade coverage because they thought it was bad public relations for the public to see. How many family dinner tables would NOT have that one empty seat on Sundays, Thanksgiving, or heck - ANY day of the week? How much of our national treasury might still be somewhere nearby instead of squandered to reckless tax cuts and then the big bills that come with a war?
Shit - even if you think it's a lost cause, you've still gotta get out there. What if one of these days some election is decided by ONE vote - and you recall having stayed home that particular Election Day?
We have to elect Democrats wherever we can. Locally, city-wide, regionally, statewide, and nationally. They're the only ones in whose hands Roe v Wade is safe. They're the only ones that can legislate favorably on this issue. They're the only ones that can block or head off or, in worst-case scenarios, veto bad bills on this issue. They're the only ones who'll consider the right to choose prominently in decisions from the bench. They're the only ones who can appoint judges of that mindset to higher positions and eventually seats on the Supreme Court. And as we saw this week, THAT is of paramount importance! Especially since judges, those in particular, tend to outlast political terms of office. Yes, many are elected, but especially there - not that many people pay much attention to those lower-level races at election time. I know plenty of people who only vote in the top few races. Sometimes they don't even bother with ballot measures and judge-ships and the really local positions, or don't know enough about it to want to vote on it. So, then, imagine how few votes are needed in those races to score a win? Even in a city the size of L.A., for example!
We are FAR more likely to protect a woman's right to choose if we vote for Democrats. NOT independents - unless they're the Bernie Sanders kind and not the joe lieberman kind. DEMOCRATS. Heck, we're FAR more likely to protect MANY rights if we vote for Democrats - like the right to vote, for example! But the important thing, the VITAL thing, is just to vote. VOTE!
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