Opposing anti-choicers at Baltimore’s Artscape
By and
BALTIMORE--Pro-choice activists turned out to counter an anti-choice picket of the city's Artscape festival July 15-17.
Anti-choice activists--including Operation Rescue, Operation Save America and the deceitfully named Genocide Awareness Project--have long targeted Dr. Leroy Carhart. One of the few remaining providers of late-term abortions in the country, Dr. Carhart practices at Germantown Reproductive Health Clinic (GRHC) in Maryland, and anti-abortion activists are determined to harass the clinic's staff and clients, and ultimately shut the clinic down for good.
Feeling confident in the wake of the recent passage of dozens of anti-choice and anti-woman laws across the country and wishing to promote their upcoming pickets of GRHC, the Genocide Awareness Project decided to picket the Baltimore Artscape festival. The group bought its gory placards, deceitful fliers and occasionally sexist insults to toss at passersby.
A few dedicated local activists--including members of the Baltimore International Socialist Organization and activists organizing around the pro-choice "Summer of Trust"--found out about the right's plans and assembled a response.
The anti-choicers, after a threatened shutdown by the cops over permits, broke into twos and quietly began setting up their gruesome signs a block apart. Pro-choice activists began handing out leaflets to counter the their lies. Artscape patrons struck up conversations with pro-choicers, and even heckled the anti-choicers.
Back at the location where the main detachment of anti-choicers were, a few passersby joined pro-choice activists after taking the last of our leaflets, and proceeded to use their bodies and the leaflets to physically block any view of the anti-choice placards.
A few minutes later, another activist came with a backpack full of markers. People began making leaflets into placards--turning the event into a small demonstration for abortion rights.
Participants began chanting, quickly electrifying a sympathetic crowd into joining us in blocking the anti-choice picket. Other people brought more markers, much-needed water--and two large rolls of paper, which quickly became pro-choice banners.
Activists stayed loud and determined for two more hours, attracted lots of support and drowned out the anti-choicers. In the end, our last-minute leafleting turned into a tenacious counter-picket which didn't pack up until the last anti-choice placard was gone.
Nor did our victory end there. Hundreds of sympathetic people, initially disgusted by the anti-choice picket, found our counter-picket and, more importantly, information about the upcoming Summer of Trust.
The Genocide Awareness Project chose the time and place, assuming an easy victory to spread their hate-filled deceit with little or no opposition. They were wrong. Now, activists are planning to stand up to the right and defend clinic access in Germantown from July 31 to August 7. With the Summer of Trust, we can show them that they can't operate anywhere in Maryland without opposition.
