BY SUSAN LAMONT
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - More than 100 angry and determined abortion rights supporters, many of them young, gathered in Brother Bryan Park here January 31 to protest the fatal bombing two days earlier at one of this city's abortion clinics. Activists from Birmingham were joined by supporters of women's rights from Huntsville, Tuscaloosa, and Muscle Shoals, Alabama, as well as Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles, and other cities.

The same day more than 25 people rallied in Cleveland to protest the bombing. Protests also took place in Los Angeles, New York, and elsewhere in the following days.

The lethal bomb exploded at the entrance to the New Woman, All Women Health Care Clinic around 7:30 a.m. January 29. The blast, which used nails as shrapnel, killed clinic security guard Robert Sanderson. Emily Lyons, the head nurse and a counselor at the clinic, was critically injured.

Sanderson's death was the first fatality caused by a clinic bombing. However, five abortion doctors and clinic staff members were killed in shootings at clinics in several U.S. cities in 1993 - 94. In January 1997 two bombs went off at Northside Family Planning Services, a women's clinic in Atlanta, only 150 miles east of here.

The New Woman clinic, along with the two other abortion clinics in Birmingham, has been a regular site of antiabortion protests for years. In 1994 Birmingham was targeted by Operation Rescue as part of a national campaign to close down abortion clinics around the country. Already faltering by the time they got to Birmingham, the Operation Rescue forces were met by well-organized pro-choice activists from throughout the Southeast. Their mobilization kept the clinics in Birmingham open. Small groups of antiabortion protesters still, however, regularly harass women entering the clinics.

Shock and outrage at bombing
Working people throughout the area reacted to the bombing with shock and outrage. At U.S. Steel/Fairfield Works, workers in the slab yard - young and old alike - were swift to condemn the bombing and defend women's right to choose. One worker who was off work called out to the yard to let others there know what had happened. "How can they do this?" said Robbie, a 27- year-old steelworker. "It's up to the woman to decide." Others agreed, even those who don't personally support abortion.

At Meadowcraft, a patio furniture plant also organized by the United Steelworkers, the bombing also prompted a strong response. "These people talk about saving babies," said one worker. "But they're the same ones who bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church," referring to the 1963 bombing of the church that served as a center for the civil rights movement here. In that blast four young Black girls were killed.

The protest at Brother Bryan Park, a few blocks away from the New Woman Clinic, was called at an emergency meeting that took place the night of the bombing. Representatives from the National Organization for Women (NOW), Birmingham Clinic Defense, Southern Students for Choice, National Lawyers Guild, Socialist Workers Party, Episcopalians for Choice, Young Socialists, the Freethought Society, Refuse and Resist, and other groups and individuals were present. They came to rapid agreement on the need for a public, visible protest of that morning's attack, and immediately started work to build the action.

Publicity was hampered by the Birmingham cops' refusal to grant a permit for the protest. The organizers decided to proceed with their plans anyway, and the rally occurred without incident.

Kim Adams, president of Alabama NOW, told the crowd that there had been 1,700 attacks on abortion clinics in the past 20 years. Kathy Spillar, representing the Feminist Majority, flew in from Los Angeles to be part of the pro-choice response to the attack. "One in four clinics has been the target of violence in the last year," she said. "But we won't be deterred. This violence will not work."

"We should take inspiration from the civil rights movement. [Racist police commissioner] Bull Conner lost in this town, and so will the antiabortion rightists," said Meg Novak of the Young Socialists, to applause. She also condemned the U.S. war drive against Iraq. "While these rightists try to restrict the choices we make about our bodies and lives, the U.S. government is trying to stop the Iraqi people from exercising sovereignty and making their own choices about what kind of government they will have."

David Gespass from the National Lawyers Guild also drew loud applause when he condemned a January 17 anti-immigrant rally in Cullman, Alabama, where a Mexican flag was burned. Many speakers called for further public actions to defend women's right to choose.

`Bombingham - Never Again'
A big banner at the front of the demonstration read, " `Bombingham' Alabama, 1963 - 1998: Never Again." The reference was to the bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church. The wave of mass civil rights actions in Birmingham in 1963 marked a turning point in the movement that ended Jim Crow segregation. For years before that, Birmingham had been known as "Bombingham," because of the frequency of bomb attacks against Blacks.

Jeff Waites, a 34-year-old truck driver from Birmingham who attended the rally, said he was shocked but not surprised by the bombing. "This is a pivotal city," he said. "The civil rights movement defeated the right wing here in Birmingham, and they would like to reclaim it. And I include the women's movement as part of the civil rights movement."

Sarah Graham, a 19-year-old student from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a member of Southern Students for Choice, said she attended the rally to "honor and respect the victims and to show we're not scared."

"Active farmers have to come together and stand for everyone's rights," said Willie King of the Rural Members Association, a group of Black farmers in Alabama. He came to the rally from Aliceville. "This bombing just shows that we're going to have to fight harder."

The protest ended with a candlelight vigil for the victims and their families.

Politicians from President William Clinton to Alabama Gov. Fob James, well known for his antiabortion views, issued routine condemnations of violence in response to the bomb attack, as did spokespeople for several antiabortion rights groups.

David Gunn, Jr., of Birmingham, whose father, Dr. David Gunn, was murdered in a 1993 clinic attack in Pensacola, Florida, told the Birmingham News that antiabortion protesters bear responsibility for such attacks, despite their attempts to distance themselves from violence. "As long as they continue to portray the clinic workers as monsters and murderers, you can't be surprised," he said.

David Trosch, a priest and leader of many antichoice actions, told reporters that he supported killing doctors who perform abortions. "Everyone has the right to protect innocent persons," he told to Birmingham News. "When the government fails to do this, it's mandatory for others to do it. In effect, the government has made abortion clinics war zones."

Much of the big-business media coverage of the attack has focused on the fact that the security guard killed in the attack was an off-duty Birmingham cop. His wife, Felicia Sanderson, has told the press that he should not be considered a "martyr for the clinics," but rather a cop who was just doing his job. Lyons remains in critical condition. She lost one eye in the blast and has only a 50-50 chance of keeping the sight in her other eye.

On February 2 the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Atlanta office of Reuters news agency received letters signed by the "Army of God," claiming responsibility for the bombing.

Susan LaMont is a member of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA). Meg Novak, also a member of the USWA, contributed to this article.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home