Activists from 16 states and Washington, DC came out to defend Dr. Leroy Carhart’s Abortion & Contraception Clinic of Nebraska on Friday, August 28th and Saturday, August 29th in response to a joint call from the National Organization for Women (NOW), the Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF), and World Can’t Wait. Clinic defenders adhered to nonviolence guidelines, refused to interact or engage with anti-choice protesters, and mostly kept anti-choice protesters from directly interfering with clinic patients. Pro-choice activists outnumbered the anti-choice demonstrators 3:1.

Dr. Carhart had reached out to Nebraska NOW President Erin Sullivan to help build a pro-choice presence at the clinic after hearing of Operation Rescue's (OR) plans to kick off their “Keep It Closed Campaign” with two days of anti-choice demonstration at his Bellevue clinic. The anti-choice demonstrations were organized by OR and local groups Rescue the Heartland and Nebraskans United for Life. Since the assassination of Dr. Tiller on May 31 and Dr. Carhart's commitment to taking on care for Dr. Tiller's abortion clients, OR has vowed to make Dr. Carhart's clinic their new primary target with the intent to shut it down.

This is the report back of the events from both days of clinic defense from a pro-choice nurse practitioner student from Brooklyn, New York.

Day 0—Thursday

The first wave of pro-choice activists arrived from all over the United States and congregated at the First Unitarian Church of Omaha, which had kindly offered sleeping space and meals for the duration of the clinic defense. At the church during the opening meeting, activists had a chance to get to know each other while national organizers oriented the activists to the ground rules of clinic defense.

Day 1—Friday

Clinic defenders gathered outside of Dr. Carhart's clinic at 7:00 a.m. with signs and banners reading messages including “Enough is enough: this clinic is staying open,” “Abortion providers save lives,” and “Dr. Carhart is a hero.” Throughout the day, at least 100 pro-choice clinic defenders were gathered while the anti-choice activists totaled at most a meager 20.

Clinic defenders lined up along both sides of the clinic entrance on Burt Murphy Road to ensure that women entered the clinic safely for their appointments with minimal intimidation and harassment. Other pro-choice demonstrators held up signs along West Mission Road and received an overwhelmingly positive response from passing traffic. Many vehicles honked in support—cars with families, a female bus driver, truck drivers, postal workers, motorcyclists. One elderly woman stopped to donate $5 to make more pro-choice signs. A local woman who had seen the clinic defense when driving by returned to drop off a case of water for the pro-choice activists.

A man who was walking down West Mission St. with his son stopped to both thank the pro-choice demonstrators and complain about the anti-choice activists. In particular, he was disturbed by the presence of the anti-choice activists bearing signs exposing his children to grotesque images. The man recounted a story about one of his friends had to have a back alley abortion when abortion was illegal and as a result she is unable to have children of her own. “That took away her choice,” he said. When women do not have access to abortion services or when abortion is illegal, choice is taken away and women are forced to resort to dangerous measures. When abortion is illegal, women die.

Among the anti-choice activists one woman acted as a so-called anti-abortion “street counselor”. She who would try to convince women not to get abortions and attempt to redirect them to a crisis pregnancy center around the corner. Never heard of a crisis pregnancy center? Read about how they lie to women and try to talk them out of abortion here: http://www.fwhc.org/abortion/fake.htm. Also among anti-choice activists were a few men who held signs with the bloody fetus imagery, four women walking around in a prayer group, and a couple with nine children who stopped to pray across the street from the clinic. Though the anti-choice protestors disbursed by 5 p.m., pro-choice demonstrators remained around the clinic to be filmed for the 6:00 o'clock news. Just prior to the filming for the news, Troy Newman, president of OR, was spotted driving past the clinic several times, staking it out, presumably in preparation for Saturday’s anti-choice activities.

Before the pro-choice protesters disbursed for the night, a clinic employee came out to relate that the patients were grateful for the clinic defenders. The employee also shared that one patient even brought flowers to her visit as a sign of appreciation for the staff and pro-choice supporters.

Lastly, it was a very successful day for the pledge-a-picket campaign, which raised $7,000. Individuals pledge to donate money for anti-choice presence the clinic, doctor’s or clinic worker’s home, and also for the appearance of so-called “truth trucks,” large vehicles that bear the graphic anti-abortion pictures. For more information, or to make a pledge, visit http://www.pledge-a-picket.org.

Day 2—Saturday

Saturday was to be the main day of action for anti-abortion activists. In preparation, pro-choice supporters about 80 pro-choice supporters and clinic defenders gathered at the clinic by 5:00 a.m. That number continued to grow as the day went on. At approximately 6:00 a.m. police closed the two streets surrounding the clinic, Bert Murphy Road and West Mission Road. Back near the clinic entrance, the police drew three lines on the street denoting a pro-choice area, a buffer zone, and an anti-choice area. Patients with appointments were to enter through a barricade at the end of Bert Murphy Road where they encountered a clinic worker with a patient list and a police vehicle. Several police cars were stationed in a lot at the corner of West Mission Street and Bert Murphy Road. A small group of police in riot gear waited across the street from the vehicles.

The first anti-choice protester, a street counselor, arrived around 9 a.m. Meanwhile, pro-choice supporters lined up on the streets as they did the previous day. Clinic defenders at the entrance and along the road approaching the clinic held signs reading “Clinic entrance,” with arrows pointing towards the driveway for the clinic. Another group of supporters held banners along Galvin Road which had heavy car traffic due to the local Air Force base air show.

An anti-choice activist with a video camera arrived just after 9 a.m. In addition to filming the pro-choice activists, the cameraman would attempt to videotape the patients, their drivers, and the vehicle license plates. Clinic defenders worked to prevent this violation of patient confidentiality and privacy by holding up large bed sheets and signs in front of the cameraman and any other antis attempting to photograph patients.

When the protesters shouted at patients, pro-choice supporters countered by chanting over them “Welcome, welcome, the clinic stays open,” to greet the patients entering the clinic. Around 9:30 a.m. two large truth trucks parked on the closed off West Mission Road, adjacent to the clinic parking lot. In response, a pro-choice supporter parked a large white van in front of one of the trucks to obstruct the imagery from the view of those parking in the lot.

Shortly after 9:30 a.m, the police moved from the corner where they were posted and told the demonstrators on Bert Murphy Road to clear the street and stay on the sidewalk. Immediately following this, a vehicle (presumably containing a patient) drove down Bert Murphy Road, paused at the clinic entrance, and then kept driving.

Later, Troy Newman, announced over a loud speaker (and online on the OR Twitter account), that they had “saved one baby”, that OR had persuaded the woman not to have an abortion. He even tried to hand out copies of the supposed ultrasound to pro-choice supporters. It was speculated that OR staged this as a publicity stunt.

Troy Newman was not the only high profile anti-choice figure out that day. A pregnant Jennifer McCoy, also known as Jennifer Patterson Sperle, who was convicted in 1996 of two abortion clinic arsons, made an appearance with her five children. She and her children were wearing hirts reading “Visualize Abortionists on Trial,” t-shirts referring to the Nuremberg Files website (http://www.christiangallery.com/atrocity/aborts.html) where there are hit lists of abortion providers, clinic workers and owners, and pro-choice politicians and judges.

Also out on Saturday was Mark Gietzen, an anti-choice activist and politician. Gietzan is the chairman of Kansas Coaltion for Life, a group that placed crosses each day outside the late Dr. Tiller’s clinic in Wichita, Kansas. Gietzan is vice chairman of the Sedgwick County Republican Party. He walked around the protest taking photographs of the clinic and pro-choice protesters. At one point a pro-choice protester took a picture of him as he was photographing her. Gietzan chuckled saying “Aren’t you glad this is dueling cameras instead of dueling guns?”

As 1:00 p.m. approached, the anti-choice protester numbers had dwindled and the few remaining appeared frustrated. They began ignoring the orange lines drawn by police and getting in the faces of clinic defenders in front of the clinic entrance. The anti-choice protesters sought to provoke verbal even physical reactions from clinic defenders without success. One clinic defender stood calmly in front of the most vocal and agitated sidewalk counselor while she yelled in his face about how we could all be saved by Jesus.

For the majority of these interactions, there was no police intervention. By this point, it was clear that it was not the police that were keeping the clinic entrance open; clinic defenders were keeping the drive free and ensuring that patients made it in the clinic for their appointments.

At 2:00 p.m. all but five anti-choice protesters had left the clinic. The remaining protesters were holding signs on Galvin Road, across the corner from about 40 pro-choice protesters. The pro-choice group stayed until 5 p.m. when they walked back to the clinic for a closing rally. By this point all the anti-choice protesters were long gone. The day ended with a celebratory rally with a couple chants and congratulatory words from Erin Sullivan, President of Nebraska NOW. The pro-choice people all signed a banner reading, “Dr. Carhart is a hero,” and many wrote short thank you blurbs.

Moving Forward: Where do we go from here?

The weekend of ... people from Bellevue, the state of Nebraska, and all over the country came out to say, “enough is enough” and stand up to the anti-choice forces. Pro-choice supporters from all different backgrounds came together and in a very disciplined way kept Dr. Carhart’s Abortion and Contraceptive Clinic of Nebraska open. This was a movement building event, with loud calls send out by not only Kansas NOW but also the NOW national office. People who had not recently been politically active, and many who had never been politically active showed up to support the clinic, and everyone was asking what to do next.

It is important to recognize that the anti-choice groups are part of a well-organized political and religious movement that wants to criminalize abortion and make it as hard as possible for women to attain. They have been picking away at reproductive choice since the Roe v. Wade decision, in the legislature, in the courts, on the streets. After Dr. Tiller’s assassination, it is quite possible that OR will be moving their headquarters from Wichita to Omaha. Either way, this is just the beginning of OR’s targeting of Dr. Carhart. The anti-choice movement will continue to bully Dr. Carhart and abortion providers across the country. Pro-choice supporters must respond!

There are many actions that pro-choice supporters locally and nationally can do to protect Dr. Carhart’s clinic and the future of women’s access to abortion in the United States.

· Grassroots organizing: Discuss the gravity of the current abortion situation in the United States with friend, family, and coworkers. While it has been estimated that about 40% of women have had an abortion in their lifetime, 87% of counties do not have abortion providers, and 31% of metropolitan areas have no abortion services. 66% of abortion providers who perform second trimester abortions are over the age of 50. Use these facts, along with ones you gather from your own research, to educate others. Set up film screenings or talks with pro-choice speakers. Download, listen to, and discuss pro-choice radio show episodes:www.voicesandchoicesradio.org.

· Clinic Support: Become an abortion clinic escort, go to pro-choice actions, and travel to support others in clinic defense. Donate time or money to support in other ways (for example, see pledge-a-picket info above).

· Media outreach: Before an action or event, create a press release. During the event itself have a media liaison that can accurately and eloquently represent the cause. After a pro-choice happening, produce a reportback to post to blogs and new sites detailing your experiences so the history and knowledge is not lost. Be present and available for media contacts. Even if there are no actions, supporters can always write letters to the editor frequently about pro-choice issues and happenings, and debunk anti-choice press. Be the media.

· Network/Outreach: Get connected with national pro-choice organizations (FMF, NARAL Pro-Choice America, NOW) to stay up to date with local and national news. Many have alerts that they will send out about issues. Use this information to send letters to state representatives and use as talking points when you are educating others. If you are already connected, reach out to others and share information about upcoming events.

· Organize actions: Organize a march and demonstration in support of abortion rights. Sounds like it is about time for this in Bellevue/Omaha.

· Represent! : Most importantly, identify yourself as a member of the local, national, and global pro-choice movement. Commit yourself to do all you can in order to ensure women's access to safe, legal abortions free of harassment and intimidation.

A Couple Quick Facts
States represented: California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin. +Washington D.C.
Media present: CNN, NPR, AP, Norwegian News, Omaha Star Herald, Bellevue Leader, Action 3 News
Hours of clinic defense: 23 (11 Friday + 12 Saturday)