A bomb threat disrupted the pro choice rally in Jackson, Mississippi yesterday. It was the first day of the eight day long Reproductive Freedom Summer rally.
Federal agents were called in, and reportedly there were two school buses of police in riot gear. Police moved the Governor to a safe location. His mansion is across the street from the park where the pro choice rally was held. Police evacuated the park before the pro choice rally had ended. The alleged bomb proved to be a suitcase full of prescription drug bottles. It appears likely that it was the anti choice zealots who called in the bomb threat - with the mission of breaking up the rally. Both sides say the week long confrontation will continue as planned.
Hundreds of pro choice activists are in Jackson for the week to counter the demonstations by the fanatical Operation Save America (formerly the violence prone Operation Rescue). The religious zealots say they intend to shut down the Jackson Women's Health Center on State Street - the state's last remaining abortion clinic.
Pro choice activists made assertive efforts to block the path of anti-choicers who attempted to approach and disrupt the rally. One such group of pro-choicers "from Boston wore black handkerchiefs over their faces, showing only their eyes and refused to give their last names to reporters."
Kim Gandy, President of the National Organization for Women , was on hand at yesterday's rally. Gandy said shutting down the clinic would "have a devastating impact on the women who live here and don't have other options that they can exercise."
Both Gandy and Nancy Kohsin-Kintigh of the Feminist Majority Foundation will be featured speakers at the week long rally. Activists from many pro choice groups are on hand including World Can’t Wait.
WCW has an online journal from rally participants, here's an excerpt:
"As World Can't Wait spokesperson Sunsara Taylor gets on the mic, drawing people's attention to the decisive times we're living in, some anti-abortion "fetus-fetishists" barge into the park with waving their bloody baby posters. As the speeches continue, World Can't Wait activists, anti-racist anarchists, and others jump up holding signs and banners in front of them to prevent them from getting to the stage. We start to chant: "From Jackson to D.C., no fascist theocracy!" Before we know it, the cops are herding us away from the permitted rally in the park claiming there's a bomb threat. But where is the bomb squad, especially in a park right next to the governor's mansion? Eventually, after waiting for hours to retrieve our banners, the cops explode a benign suitcase. One thing is clear: in Jackson Mississippi, the cops are not on our side."
And from Michelle Colon, Pres. of the Jackson Chapter of NOW:
"This is a very local struggle, but it will mean a lot of for the rest of the country, because here, just like across all the other red states, there's no comprehensive sex ed, it's all abstinence only education. The access to contraceptives isn't good at all, and there are almost no [abortion] clinics left in Mississippi.
I think this country needs a wake up call, and this is it. Get in the streets. We need the civil rights activists. We need the unions. We need all the help we can get and we need to unite on this issue of women's reproductive rights, because no one else is gonna do it for us. The Democrats don't have our backs. The ones that claim to be pro-choice - Governor Blanco in Louisiana, for example - they're obviously not the ones who are going to fight on this for us, because they're selling us out on so many things, from LGBT issues to social programs."
The NBC affiliate has a video covering the bomb threat - Rally Bomb Threat. The ABC affiliate has a video covering only the anti choice fanatics -- NBC has the very same video -- Abortion Rallies Continue.
Politics Abortion NOW Operation Save America Feminism Reproductive Rights Pro Choice Roe v. Wade Reproductive Freedom Summer 2006 Jackson Mississippi
