Peaceful and Creative: Pro Choice Activists Draw the Picture

Summer of Choice & Summer of Trust kick off on Sunday, July 31, as prochoice supporters provide a peaceful response to the ugly anti-abortion harassers descending on Dr. LeRoy Carhart in Germantown, Maryland.

The Washington Post published an article about Dr. Carhart earlier this week. The Summer of Choice site features a video in which he invites participants to Germantown.

Words of Choice will honor the prochoice activists with a performance on Sunday, July 31, at 5 pm, at the Marriott Courtyard Gaithersburg at Washingtonian Center, 204 Boardwalk Place, in Gaithersburg MD 20878. See more information here and flyers here. Performers include Carl H. Jaynes, Stacey Linnartz and Krystel Lucas, under the direction of Francesca Mantani Arkus. Visual artist Heather Ault of 4000 Years for Choice, will show her art at the space, and we will be joined in discussion with FemiSisters, Maryland activsts Neda Bolourian and Lily Bolourian. (Tickets are $10 and all funds will go to support the Abortion Access Fund, which helps economically disadvantaged women.)

Others are doing amazing and wonderful work to support Dr. Carhart, including the grassroots activists of SummerofTrust.com, Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, The Feminist Majority, National Organization of Women, The World Can't Wait, and many many donors, sponsors and walkers. A Walk for Choice (short walk, about a mile) will take place on Sunday, July 31 at 1 pm, at the Germantown clinic, again, supporting the Abortion Access Fund.

While lots of people are doing lots of things, the creativity of the New York Coalition for Abortion Clinic Defense is a special pleasure. Groups met over two weekends, as they often do, to protect a clinic in the Bronx, but also spent time making and preparing signs in support of Dr. Carhart and the activities in Maryland. They posted pictures on Facebook page, and are taking them on down to Maryland. They are beautiful -- one is pictured above. And it's such a simple thing that makes an amazing difference -- a hand-made sign, personal contribution, ingenuity, action, creativity.

Others are making banners and others are just bringing themselves -- from more than a dozen states, including California, Kansas, South Dakota.

Why all this activity? It's in response to Operation Rescue, the Troy Newman branch, which is located in Kansas and, since Dr. Tiller was murdered, has decided to target Dr. Carhart for their hate mongering fests. They call this "Summer of Mercy 2.0". Kari Ann Rinker of Kansas NOW wrote a great article about her response to their obnoxious behavior.

All through the week from July 31 through August 8, prochoice supporters will stand with Dr. Carhart and his amazing clinic staff. The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice will sponsor peaceful presence training, beginning on Sunday, July 31. Each day, prochoice activists will stand outside the clinic to show their support and show that women's rights won't be defeated by hate mongers.

Read more about the Words of Choice performance on Culture ID.

Posted by Cindy Cooper
Pictured above: Sign by New York Coalition for Abortion Clinic Defense


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Blog Carnival for Contraception: Speak Up!

Have something to say about birth control? The National Women's Law Center and Planned Parenthood are co-hosting a BLOG CARNIVAL on July 21, 2011.

Go here to participate.

What's there to say? Well, a lot it turns out since a key organization recommended that birth control be exempted from co-payments under Department of Health and Human Services rules for new health insurance plans. Birth control was deemed to be a "preventive service" and that allows the co-payment to be eliminated!

The opinion of the Institute of Medicine, described here by the Guttmacher Institute, is an essential step to helping women control their decisions to bear children without going broke. The Insitute said that the services are important so that “women can better avoid unwanted pregnancies and space their pregnancies to promote optimal birth outcomes.”

But, as those who engage in pro-choice work know, that doesn't seal the deal. Anti-choice activists want to make birth control as difficult as possible (because, of course, they say it encourages women to have sex!)

So joining the Blog Carnival is one way to draw attention to this important decision, to keep up the incentive and motivation for birth control coverage, and to speak up and speak out!

Posted by Cindy Cooper
Pictured above: Poster for Blog Carnival, July 21, 2011

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Video by Dr. Carhart Calls for Peaceful Pro-Choice Presence

Dr. LeRoy Carhart speaks personally and directly to the pro-choice community on a new video posted on YouTube, as he invites pro-choice Americans to join him in Germantown, Maryland (Montgomery County) for the Summer of Choice, a peaceful presence to counter anti-abortion zealots who are targeting him and women's rights to reproductive freedom and autonomy.

The activities will run from July 31 to August 6, Dr. Carhart explains, with a March for Choice on July 31, 2011 at 1 pm. The march will help raise funds for the Abortion Access Fund, Inc., which provides assistance to disadvantaged women.



Dr. Carhart provides abortions in some of the most difficult circumstances and has twice been the plaintiff on reproductive rights cases that were heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. In the 2.24 minute video, he says:

Hello. I’m Dr Carhart and I want to invite all of your to join us for a summer celebration of choice. This will take place in Germantown Maryland from the 31st of July until the 6th of August. We hope to have a peaceful presence as large as you can imagine. We want everyone to come. We need to show our representatives in Congress that the pro-choice message is the message of the American people; that the majority of Americans are pro-choice. And that prochoice Americans vote. ...I especially want to invite everyone to attend our kickoff walk. This will be on Sunday, July 31 starting at 1 pm.

Dr. Carhart introduces a new website, www.SummerOfChoice.com, which also has the video. Information on the walk will be posted there, he says, and "also we will be posting many other events during this week."

UPDATE: Words of Choice will perform to support Summer of Choice activities on July 31 at 5 pm in Gaithersburg, MD. See www.wordsofchoice.org for details, directions and tickets.

Dr. Carhart also lends his support to the grassroots pro-choice organizers at Summer of Trust, which is organizing activists to support Dr. Carhart's efforts.

Here is the direct link for the video for posting on your site: http://youtu.be/5eP5EHjN2Js

Also see: Summer of Trust & Choice: Support Dr. Carhart!Posted by Cindy Cooper
Pictured: Dr. Carhart, Summer of Choice video, www.summerofchoice.com

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