Vol. 75/No. 5      February 7, 2011

The Germantown clinic has become a special target of abortion opponents since Dr. LeRoy Carhart began performing late-term abortions there in early December. Carhart is an abortion provider in the greater Omaha, Nebraska, area. He worked for 11 years with Dr. George Tiller, who was murdered in Wichita, Kansas, in May 2009 by antiabortion rightist Scott Roeder.

The picket line in defense of women’s right to choose abortion was organized by young women from the staff of the National Organization for Women (NOW). Participants also came from the Feminist Majority Foundation, the Germantown clinic staff, the Socialist Workers Party, and the World Can’t Wait.

The Maryland County Sheriff’s Department had dozens of police on hand, claiming that they were there to “prevent confrontations.” The office park where the clinic is located was cordoned off and a line of police stood across the sidewalk to prevent abortion rights picketers from getting near the so-called “pro-life” protesters. This was despite assurances from the police to NOW staffer Ashley Braun that there would be no restrictions on the pro-choice picket line as long as everyone kept moving and there were no confrontations with the “pro-life” demonstrators.

When Braun asked a police officer what laws the picketers would be breaking by continuing to walk back and forth on the sidewalk, she was told, “Do you want to be arrested for disobeying a lawful order of a police officer?” The abortion rights picketers finally agreed to move across the street, drawing honks and waves of support from motorists.

Nestor Gonzalez, 22, a worker from the nearby Dunkin’ Donuts restaurant, joined the abortion rights picket on his way home from work. “Every week I have been seeing a man with his kids picketing on the corner against the clinic,” he said. “When I saw you out here today, I couldn’t go by. I had to stop. This is a question for women to decide for themselves.”

January 22 was the 38th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. Thousands of antiabortion protesters gathered in Washington, D.C., January 24, as they do each year, to demand that abortion be outlawed. Supporters of women’s right to choose organized a vigil at the Supreme Court January 21 and a presence at the January 24 demonstration.
 
 
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